A couple of months ago we initiated a blog series to present updates and improvements introduced to our early plugins. The Nop Mega Menu and the Nop Cloud Zoom plugins were the first plugins to get a major uplift. If you have missed the release of these two plugins, you can find more information on our blog.

Let me introduce the star of the day: the Nop Carousel plugin. First I would like to bring your attention to one very significant new feature. Now the carousel can display product item boxes. This means that if you include a product in a carousel, the product will be displayed with all available product options such as the add to cart, compare and wishlist buttons, the quick view, the promo ribbons etc. In previous versions of the carousel, you could only have a product picture, product name, product description,and product price. Now, if a website visitor lands on your website and really likes one of the products you have displayed in a carousel, he can perform the following actions - open a quick view of the product, add the product to the shopping cart or the wish list, or compare it with another product, without having to go to the product details page.

• Shopping is faster and easier for your customers, as they can act directly upon the products in the carousel.

• The look and feel of the products in your carousel would be consistent with the rest of the product items on your website. This means that you would not have to spend time and effort styling your product carousels separately.

In previous versions, you could have a carousel for products, categories, and manufacturers. Now you can also have a carousel for vendors. 

The carousel is fully responsive and will adjust accordingly, depending not only on the screen resolution but also on the container in which it resides. So, if you put a carousel in the left-side panel, you can be sure that it would resize and look its best.

You can swipe to slide which is a super useful feature when browsing on mobile.

There is a dot navigation available to guide you through the carousel items. It is also a good way to indicate the number of products in a carousel so that your customers know to scroll for them.

Improved administration

1. Changes introduced to the admin area. 
In nopCommerce 3.80 a brand new admin area was introduced. In nopCommerce 3.90 the admin area has become even better as more user-friendly changes have been made. For example, links have been substituted with buttons, the grids have been re-designed and new inputs for currencies, weight, and dimension have been introduced. All this makes the nopCommerce administration easier and faster to work with.



2. Admin area simplified. Added "basic-advanced" modes to several more entities. 
Basic and advanced modes were introduced to the product details and settings pages in nopCommerce 3.80. In nopCommerce 3.90 you have the same basic and advanced options available for the categories, checkout attributes, manufacturers, message templates, and topics pages. This is a feature we particularly like, because it makes the store administration more organized and easy to manage, especially for small and medium-sized shops which do not need to use all the advanced features of nopCommerce. 

Improved store management

1. Support conditions in message templates. For example, now you can hide shipping address in emails if shipping is not required. 
This is one of our favorite features in nopCommerce 3.90. In short, you can have conditional parts in your message templates. You simply define a condition, which if met would include everything that is enclosed inside the condition.
Before illustrating this with an example you need to know the right syntax for including conditional information in the message templates. The conditional part always starts with %if and ends with endif%. Right after the %if, you need to specify the actual Condition in parentheses (condition) followed by the text that you would like to be included.

%if (Condition) conditional text here endif%

Only if the condition is evaluated to True then the text after the condition will be included in the message template.
For example, in the following condition if the order is shippable the email will contain the text “You will receive the product in 2 days”:

%if(%Order.Shippable%) You will receive the product in 2 days endif%

Please note the use of tokens in the Condition itself.
A Condition could be either a simple boolean token like %Order.Shippable%, which by the way is a new token added in nopCommerce 3.90 or a simple expression that could be evaluated to a boolean value. Let's illustrate this with several examples:

%if(%Order.Shippable%) - checks if the order is shippable

%if (%Order.OrderNumber% == 500) - checks if the order number is equal to 500

%if (%Order.OrderNumber% == 500&& %Order.Shippable%) - checks all of the above at the same time

The best news is that you can also compare string values like this:

%if(%Order.PaymentMethod%==”PayPal Standard”) - checks if the the payment method is PayPal. Please note that while we tested the string comparison above we noticed that it is important not to leave any empty spaces in the condition between the == sign and the actual string i.e “PayPal Standard” as otherwise the condition will always be evaluated to False even if the payment method is actually PayPal.

Another example is to check if the country is different from the USA and send some special delivery instructions:

%if(%Order.Shippable% && %Order.ShippingCountry%!=”USA”) Some special delivery instructions here endif%

Please note that if the condition is wrong or could not be evaluated it will default to False value and the conditional text will not be included in the message.

2. Boolean logic support for discount requirements (“AND” or “OR” or groups).
Previously in nopCommerce, a store owner could set one or more requirement to a discount if they wanted to limit its applicability based on a customer role, the amount spent, etc. In nopCommerce 3.90, discount requirements can be grouped with conditional logic (AND, OR). This is achieved through the so-called requirement groups. In a requirement group, the store owner can put a number of requirements and specify whether one or all requirements in the group need to be met. The store owner can add multiple requirement groups and specify whether one or all requirement groups need to evaluate to true for the discount to be applied.
For example, I wish to give a 20% discount on the order total in two cases - if a customer buys the Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch together with the Beats Pill 2.0 Wireless Speaker OR if he buys Levi’s 511 Jeans together with a Custom T-Shirt. To achieve this I will go to the discount settings and create two requirement groups one for the first two products and another one for the other two and I will add each product requirement to the corresponding group. Finally, I will make sure that the interaction type inside the groups is AND and the interaction type between the groups is OR as shown in the example below.



3. Delay usage of reward points.
In nopCommerce you can have a reward points program where customers earn points for certain actions they take on the site, e.g. making a purchase. Now in version 3.90 the store owner can choose to activate those reward points immediately or to set a period of time after which the points will be activated. In the My Account area under reward points, the customer can see how many reward points he has earned and when they will be active. Let’s say that you have a 30-day return policy. You can set the reward points, a customer has earned to be active, after 30 days. In this way, the customer will not be able to use the points if he decides to return the item he has purchased.



4. Configuring custom order number by the store owners.
In nopCommerce 3.90 the store owner can add date information to the order numbers. For example, instead of just having the order number which will be generated by default, the store owner can choose to add the year, the month, the day or all of the above to the order number. This could be helpful when the state legislation requires that the order numbers are generated in a specific way, let's say that the order number should start from 1 for each month. In the example below I have decided to add the year and the month to my order ID.



5. Allow a store owner to manage access to plugins per customer role (ACL).
In nopCommerce 3.90 the store owner can limit a plugin to certain customer roles and this plugin will not be integrated into the public store if the customer that is browsing the website is not in these roles.
There are many scenarios where this could be useful as it applies to all kind of plugins i.e payment methods, shipping providers etc.
Let’s say that you want only registered customers to use a given payment method i.e PayPal. Then simply go to the “Local plugins” page and click “Edit” next to the PayPal payment plugin and then in the “Limited to customer roles” field select the “Registered” customer role.



6. Specifying a product availability range.
In nopCommerce 3.90 instead of displaying the general “out of stock” message, the store owner can specify when a product will be available again. For, example, if a product is sold out a store owner can specify that it will be back in stock in 2 days. This is a very useful feature because, instead of showing that the product is not available and potentially lose a customer, you can make them come back to your site and possibly make a purchase when the product is available again. The store owner can manage the product availability ranges in configuration –> shipping -> dates and ranges.



7. Tier prices now support start and end dates (hence removed “special prices” product properties).
The tier pricing functionality is enhanced with the ability to specify a start and end date. This means that you can have “special prices” for a certain period of time. That is why the special price fields available in the previous versions of nopCommerce are now removed from the product and they are now part of the tier pricing. The nopCommmerce 3.90 upgrade script moves all old special prices (if you have had any) into tier prices with quantity 1.


Now if you want your product to have a special price for a given start/end date you need to create a new tier price with quantity 1, although it is not really a “tier” price. After these improvements, the tier prices are no longer just simple “tier” prices. This is why the nopCommerce team plans to rename them to “Advanced pricing” in the following releases of nopCommerce in order to remove any confusion. 

8. Track stock changes of products.
In nopCommerce 3.90 there is a “stock quantity history” available for each product. This comes handy when the store owner needs more detailed information about any changes made in the product quantity. The store owner can see if a change in the product quantity is made manually or if the stock quantity is being reduced by placing an order. Additionally, if an order is canceled, a store owner will be able to see the quantity adjusted.

9. Reply to product reviews (for store owners and vendors).
In nopCommerce 3.90 a store owner or a vendor can reply to a customer review in the store administration. Being a store owner ourselves we know how important customer reviews are. Even more important for us is to be able to demonstrate commitment and gain our customers’ trust by replying to their reviews.



10. "Products never purchased" report.
In nopCommerce 3.90 a store owner can run a product never purchase report by a vendor, category, and manufacturer. This gives a more detailed overview of the products that have not been purchased and can help the store owner take actions to correct that. For example, in the administration of my store, I can easily see which Apple products has never been purchased. Based on this, I can decide to run a promotion in the next week and try to sell them at a lower price.



11. Allow editing of product specification attribute option.
This new feature is a real time-saver for the store owner. Now a store owner can edit the specification attributes in the administration of the products. In previous nopCommerce versions, you would have to delete and create a specification attribute from scratch if you wanted to apply any changes.

Improved Shopping and Checkout experience

1. Using multiple discount coupon codes.
We are sure that this is a feature every store owner has been looking forward to. At last, in nopCommerce 3.90 a customer can apply more than one coupon codes to an order. That was impossible in previous versions and the store owner had to combine coupon codes manually. This is a time-consuming task if you have to do it regularly.



2. Attaching files when submitting return requests (scans, additional documents, etc).
Now when a customer makes a return request, he can attach files which might be related to the product purchase and the return request. This useful feature will save both the store owner and the customer the overhead of sending files via email when required.



3. Added approval mechanism for news and blog comments.
In nopCommerce 3.90 a store owner can choose to have news and blog comments approved before being published in the public store. In this way, the store owner can monitor the comments and filter any of them which have inappropriate content. This could be especially useful also for preventing spammers from flooding your blog comments. “Comments must be approved” needs to be checked in the blog and news settings for the feature to be active.



4. Do not allow removal of required products from the cart.
In nopCommerce 3.90 customers can no longer remove required products from the shopping cart. This new feature comes handy when a store owner wants to bundle a product with another one. For example, let’s say that I want to make the Beats Pill 2.0 Wireless Speaker a required product for the Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch. What I have to do is go to the Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch product page and check the “require other products” option. I can select the product ID and choose to have the product automatically added to the shopping cart. Next time when a customer adds the Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch to his shopping cart, the required product (Beats Pill 2.0 Wireless Speaker) will also be added to the cart. The customer will not be able to remove the required product from the shopping cart.



5. Display a user-friendly message for "maximum discounted quantity" (when applied).
Since nopCommerce 3.50 the store owners could specify the maximum discounted quantity a given discount could be applied to. But the customers were not given any indications of this when adding the products to their cart. This could be quite confusing especially if the carted quantity of a given product exceeded the maximum discounted quantity.
In nopCommerce 3.90 if the store owner sets a “maximum discounted quantity” for a product, then on the shopping cart page a user-friendly message will be displayed to the customer to let him know what is the maximum quantity he can get a discount for. Let’s illustrate this with an example. I have set the maximum discounted quantity for the HTC One Lollipop to three. If a customer wants to purchase five items, only three of them will be discounted. A message will appear in the shopping cart, letting the customer know that the discount has been applied only to three out of five items. For two of the items, he will have to pay the regular price.
This means that in nopCommerce 3.90 the customers see not only how much they will save but also the exact number of the products that have been discounted i.e “Discounted qty: 3”.



6. Allow subscription to the newsletter when the store is closed.
Another very important feature in nopCommerce 3.90 is the ability to subscribe to the store newsletter even when the store is closed. This will allow the store owner to collect customer emails even before they have officially launched their stores. This feature will allow entrepreneurs to have a landing page and build a customer audience before launching their store.

Improved Security

There are four new customer settings related to complying with the latest PCI DSS 3.2 requirements:



Password lifetime - This setting specifies the number of days before a password expires. By default, this setting is set to 90 days. But for this policy to take effect you need to enable it per customer role. Simply go to the customer role that you want to force password expiration for and enable the “Enable password lifetime” setting. As a best practice, this policy needs to be applied to store administrators as they have access to sensitive store information and settings.



Unduplicated passwords number - This is just a small part of all the improvements and bug fixes made in nopCommerce 3.90 and if you want to see all of them you can take a look at the detailed release notes.

Maximum login failures - If you fail to login after several attempts then your account will be locked for a certain time (see the “Lockout time” setting below). Once your account is locked even if you entered the correct username/password then you would not be able to log in. Leave this setting to zero if you want to disable account lockout.

Lockout time (login failures) - If your account is locked i.e failed to login after several failures then this setting is used to specify the time in minutes before you can attempt to log in again. During this time you will not be able to login even if your credentials are correct.

Performance optimizations

As with any release of nopCommerce, this one is not different and introduces many performance improvements.

Reduced memory usage - nopCommerce 3.80 had an issue with taking too much memory after several restarts of the website. This could be a big problem if you are running your nopCommerce on a shared hosting because on a shared hosting server your website memory usage is capped. If your website hits the memory limit then it would be restarted which creates a huge disruption to its proper operation.We personally think this is the best performance improvement since nopCommerce 3.3 as it will make running nopCommerce on shared hosting much more stable than it used to be.

Improved caching - In nopCommerce 3.90 discounts are loaded only once and cached. Previously all the discounts were loaded on every web request and if you had more than a few discounts this could slow down your website.

NopCommerce 3.90 also manages its cache much more efficiently than previous versions. Now only dirty cache is being cleared. For example, if a change is made to a given product then only the cache related to this product is cleared and eventually reloaded rather than the cache for all products. Again this will significantly improve the page load time especially if the site has a lot of products.

These are just some of the great new features in nopCommerce 3.90 we have shortlisted for the purpose of this digest. There are many more features and improvements worth your attention. For the full list of new features, please refer to the official release note.  

NopCommerce is an ASP.NET open-source platform for setting up e-commerce sites, also known as online stores. Nopcommerce is not only free and open-source but it also sports a myriad of features, among which are multi-store, multi-vendor, rental products, recurring products, etc. But before you can try this powerful e-commerce system you need to install it.

In this blog post we will discuss three installation methods you can use to set up your own nopCommerce store:

• Automatic nopCommerce installation - This method of installing nopCommerce is very straightforward and takes almost no time. However, it is a viable option only if you do not need to make any changes to the source code. It also entails the usage of Microsoft Azure or an ASP.NET hosting provider which provides nopCommerce as part of their control panel.
• Manual nopCommerce installation - This method of installing nopCommerce is a bit more complex as there are a few additional steps you need to follow. However, for this extra effort you will get more flexibility and control over your online store.
• Custom nopCommerce installation - You can also hire certified nopCommerce partners to do the installation for you. In this case, you will need zero technical knowledge.

Before Installing nopCommerce

There are two things that must be done before you install nopCommerce.

1. Ensure that you meet the nopCommerce Technology & System Requirements
   
   
2. Ensure that you have the Windows Permissions configured (if you are going to install nopCommerce manually).

NopCommerce requires 'write' permissions to the following directories:

• \App_Data\
• \bin\
• \log\
• \Plugins\
• \Plugins\bin\
• \wwwroot\bin\
• \wwwroot\bundles\
• \wwwroot\db_backups\
• \wwwroot\files\exportimport\
• \wwwroot\images\
• \wwwroot\images\thumbs\
• \wwwroot\images\uploaded
• \App_Data\installedPlugins.json - after installing nopCommerce
• \App_Data\dataSettings.json - after installing nopCommerce

Here is how you can configure the ‘write’ permission for these directories:

• Right click on the folder
• Click ‘Properties’
• Click ‘Security’
• Choose the user that IIS will use to run your nopCommerce application. You have several options:

1. Choose an Application Pool Identity Account
   - Add the Application Pool Identity Account (we are using the DefaultAppPool for this example)
   - Click on the ‘Add’ button
   - In the ‘Enter the object names to select’ text box, type ‘IIS apppool\defaultapppool’
   - Click on the ‘Check Names’ button. Then click on the ‘OK’ button
   
2. Choose a User Account
   Note: Before you choose a User Account you have to set your application pool to use that account.
   - Open your IIS Manager
   - Choose ‘Application Pools’ from the Connections menu
   
   - Select your Application Pool and click on ‘Advanced Settings’ from the Actions menu
   - Find the Identity setting and click on it
   
   - Choose the ‘Custom account’ radio button and click ‘Set’ to set the user credentials
   
   
3. Choose the IIS_IUSRS user group
   Note: If you do not see the IIS_IUSRS user group, you can add it by following these steps:
   - Click on the ‘Add’ button
   
   - Click on the ‘Advanced’ button
   
   - Click on the ‘Find now’ button
   
   - Select the IIS_IUSRS result in the Search Results and click ‘OK’
   
   

• Click ‘Edit’ - this will enable you to edit the permissions for this user (for this specific folder)
• Below the ‘Edit’ button you will find the ‘Permissions’ list as well as ‘Allow’ and ‘Deny’ checkboxes
• Mark the ‘Allow’ checkboxes for the ‘Read’ and ‘Write’ permissions
  
  

How to install nopCommerce automatically?

For nopCommerce 3.90 and below, the automatic installation of nopCommerce is done through the Microsoft Web Platform Installer.

For nopCommerce 4.00 and above, the only way to install nopCommerce automatically, is installing it in Microsoft Azure.

Essentially, Microsoft Azure will create a Web App and a SQL database for your store. Microsoft Azure will also automatically deploy the latest version of nopCommerce.

Note that this will install a clean version of nopCommerce. If you want to modify nopCommerce and then deploy it to Microsoft Azure, you will have to do it through Visual Studio. (This is something we will discuss in the section ‘How to Install nopCommerce Manually’.)

Installing nopCommerce automatically on Microsoft Azure is very easy. Here are the steps you need to follow:

• Open the Microsoft Azure Marketplace. You can either do this through the Microsoft Azure Website or through the Microsoft Azure Portal.
  Note: The screenshots below show how you can install nopCommerce from the Microsoft Azure Portal.
  
  
• Click on ‘Web’ from the menu on the left.
  
  
• Type ‘nopCommerce’ in the search bar. The nopCommerce app will appear in the results.
• Click on the nopCommerce app. Click on the ‘Create’ button.
• Enter your Web App information.
  
  You will need to choose a ‘Resource group’ for your nopCommerce app. You can either create a new ‘Resource group’ or use an existing one.
  You will also need to create your SQL Database and fill in the required information.
  
  
• After creating the Web App, the nopCommerce installation process (deployment) will start automatically. This will be indicated on the dashboard.
  
  Note: Keep in mind that the configuration process might take a while.
  
• Open your newly created online store. You will be redirected to the nopCommerce Installation Page. Fill in your ‘Store information’ and ‘Database information’.
  
  
• Click ‘Install’.
  

How to install nopCommerce manually?

Ultimately, you have two alternatives:

• Install nopCommerce in Microsoft Azure
• Install nopCommerce on a local machine

Installing nopCommerce in Microsoft Azure

You can install nopCommerce in Microsoft Azure manually using Visual Studio. Usually, you will need to do this if you are working with the source code.

Essentially, you first build your project in Microsoft Visual Studio and then deploy it to Microsoft Azure. During the deploy, your files will be transferred to Microsoft Azure.  From there, they can be accessed and used by your Web App.

Here are the steps you need to follow in order to install nopCommerce in Microsoft Azure:

1. Create a Web App in Microsoft Azure from the ‘Create a resource’ menu.
   
2. Enter your Web App information and click on the ‘Create’ button.
   Note: Check the screenshot above for more information - this step is identical to the step in the automatic installation.
3. Create a SQL Database. Note that your SQL Database should be in the same resource group as your Web App.
4. Publish your Nop.Web project. To do this, you have to right click on it and click on ‘Publish’.
   
5. Choose ‘Microsoft Azure App Service’. Below, you will see two checkboxes: ‘Create new’ and ‘Select Existing’. Mark the ‘Select Existing’ checkbox. Click ‘Publish’.
6. Select your newly created Web App. Click on ‘Ok’. Visual Studio will build your project and deploy it to your Web App so it is ready for use.
   
7. Open your newly created nopCommerce store. You will be redirected to the nopCommerce installation page (see screenshot above). Fill in the required information.
8. Click ‘Install’.

Installing nopCommerce on a local machine

• Go to the nopCommerce website
• Create an account
• Download the latest nopCommerce version on your local machine
  
  Currently, the latest nopCommerce version is 4.0. Version 4.1 is expected to be released by the end of June 2018. You have three download options (or packages) for nopCommerce 4.0:
  - nopCommerce 4.0 with source code - this is a viable option if you are an ASP.NET developer or a store owner who wants to make major changes to their store and, therefore, needs access to the source code. Note that you can also find nopCommerce latest source code on GitHub.
  - nopCommerce 4.0 for web- this is a viable option for store owners who have less technical knowledge or do not want to customize the nopCommerce core system. Note that because nopCommerce is fully themable, customizations to the front-end are possible even without the source code.
  - 4.0 with upgrade script - this download package allows you to upgrade your existing version of nopCommerce to 4.0.

There are two ways to run your nopCommerce store depending on which download package you choose:

1. If you have chosen the no source code package, you have to run your website with Microsoft IIS (Internet Information Services). Here is how you can do this:
   - Open the nopCommerce folder on your local machine
   - Copy the files from it and paste them to an IIS virtual directory (i.e. a site root)
   - Use a browser to view and configure your website
2. If you have chosen the source code package, you have to run your website with Microsoft Visual Studio. Here is how you can do this:
   - Find the .rar file for the source code and extract it to your local machine
   - Open Microsoft Visual Studio
   - Open ‘Project/Solution’
   - Find the folder in which you have extracted your nopCommerce files
   - Open the .snl file and run the Nop.Web.project in Microsoft Visual Studio
   

Regardless of whether you run your website with IIS or Visual Studio, when you run it for the first time, the nopCommerce installation process will start, i.e. you will be redirected to an installation page. Here is what you have to do next:

• Fill in the ‘Store information’ section, i.e. your administration account credentials.
  Note: Below this section, you will find a ‘Create sample data’ checkbox - we advise you to mark it.
• Fill in the ‘Database information’ section.
  • Choose one of these alternatives for your database:
    - ‘Use built-in data storage (SQL server compact)’
    - ‘Use SQL Server (or SQL Express) database’ - this is the recommended option. Note that you can choose it only if you use SQL Standard 2008 or above.
    Note: Below this section, you will find a ‘Create a database if it doesn’t exist’ checkbox - we advise you to mark it.
  • Choose one of these alternatives for the connection string:
    - ‘Enter SQL connection values’
    - ‘Enter raw connection strings (advanced)’
  • Normally, you will go with the first option, in which case you will have to fill in your SQL Server name. The easiest way to find your SQL server name is to open Microsoft SQL Management Studio and copy the server name from the login screen.
    
  • Fill in your database name
  • Choose whether to use SQL Server account or an integrated Windows authentication
  • If you choose the former, fill in your SQL credentials
  • Click ‘Install’

Note: Once you have installed nopCommerce and set up your online store, you will need a good hosting provider to make your website public. Everleap is a viable option which we at Nop-Templates highly recommend.

Need another option? Have us install nopCommerce for you!

If none of the two options we discussed above works for you, you can hire a nopCommerce certified solutions partner to install nopCommerce for you and set up your optimized and customizable store.

We at Nop-Templates.com, have recently started providing nopCommerce customizations, which among other things include installing nopCommerce and configuring your store for optimal performance. We can provide either small theme tweaks or full-blown custom nopCommerce development.

If you are just starting however, you might consider a ready-made theme for your store. This is usually the quickest and most cost-effective way to launch your e-commerce business.

If you choose one of our nopCommerce themes you will not only have your store up and running in minutes but will also sport a modern design and rich e-commerce features delivered by 13 additional (and free!) nopCommerce plugins. You will also get one year of free upgrades and technical support from our world-class development team.

Conclusions

Depending on the modification you need to make to your nopCommerce store, you can choose whether to download nopCommerce with or without source code.

After that, you will have to decide whether to install nopCommerce manually (on Microsoft Azure or on a local machine) or automatically (on Microsoft Azure). The installation process in both cases is straightforward.

If you do not have the time or the resources to install nopCommerce yourself, you can contact us and we will be more than happy to install it for you.

Do you already have your nopCommerce store up and running? What is the biggest challenge you had to overcome during the installation process? Feel free to share it with us in the comments section below!

We have been working with nopCommerce since version 1.60 and have seen the product evolve through almost 30 releases in a total of 7 years. So you might think that a new release of nopCommerce is not something that will get us jumping up and down. Well, this is not exactly so. Especially when we have a major release of our favorite e-commerce system and especially when this release marks an important milestone for the platform.

NopCommerce 4.0 has just been released and with it comes not only a multitude of improvements and new features but also the most important move to ASP.NET Core 2.0.

In this article, I am going to describe the new features in nopCommerce 4.0 and most notably the migration to ASP.NET Core 2.0 and what it means for the platform. So without further ado let’s dive into the details.

Migration to ASP.NET Core 2.0

NopCommerce 4.0 now runs on ASP.NET Core as compared to the previous 3.90 version, which runs on ASP.NET 4.6.  ASP.NET Core was originally named ASP.NET 5. But only increasing the major version from 4 to 5 would have meant that ASP.NET 5 is bigger, better and simply a continuation of the previous version. In reality, it is not exactly so.

ASP.NET Core is actually a complete re-write from the ground up, but much lighter and more modular than its predecessor. So what has changed in this flagship version of the framework? Well, it would be a much shorter list if we were to write what has not changed. But it would also be a much more boring one. So here are the main new features of ASP.NET Core and what makes it such a huge step forward for .NET:

• Open source - ASP.NET core is a community-driven framework and its source code can be found on Github.
• Cross-platform - ASP.NET Core can run on Windows, Linux, Mac, regardless.
• Side-by-side - You can choose to deploy the CoreCLR with your application, which means that you do not have to have. NET Core installed on the host machine.
• Grunt and Gulp - Being cross-platform entails no reliance on Windows technologies. Therefore ASP.NET Core integrates with Node.js for example, which can run Grunt or Gulp pre and post-build tasks.
• Modular - ASP.NET Core ships as a set of nuget packages which includes the .NET Core runtime. Because of the modularity of the framework upgrading to a new version will only require upgrading the nuget packages.
• Tag Helpers - ASP.NET Core comes with a new feature supported by its Razor engine - the Tag Helpers. Now you are probably thinking that this sounds similar to HTML Helpers and wondering how they are different. Let’s remind ourselves how HTML helpers looks like:
  
  
  
  Essentially you have a server-side C# method accepting a lambda expression as the only parameter. All this adds unnecessary complexity and noise to the otherwise HTML-like nature of the code. Experienced ASP developers would often compare this to the “spaghetti code” they used in their ASP scripts in the late 90s and early 2000s. Looking at an HTML helper it is difficult to guess what the returned HTML will be.
  
  Fortunately, now we have the Tag Helpers, which use only HTML tags while still executing code written in C# on the server. Let’s see how the previous HTML Helpers can be rewritten with Tag Helpers:
  
  
• View Components - child actions and partial views are gone in ASP.NET Core. Instead, we have the view components which are much more powerful an leaner than partial views. Unlike partial views View Components:
  1. Do not have a dependency on a controller
  2. Are not reachable via an HTTP request.
  3. Do not pass through the full MVC request pipeline and render only a chunk rather than a whole response.
  4. Have no model binding because the parameters are not coming from the HTTP request but are rather passed when the view component is invoked. This allows for overloads of the invocation method.
  5. Do not support action filters. Action filters when overused can cause real headaches so their absence here is more than welcomed.
  6. Allow dependency injection and can perform complex business logic.
  7. Follow the same separation of concerns as controller actions which makes them unit testablе.
  In short, view components are a lighter and much more powerful way of creating reusable rendering logic.

These are the most notable features of the new framework but it is important to know that nopCommerce is not making use of probably the most important one. NopCommerce 4.0 is still not cross-platform. When your application runs on ASP.NET Core it can target either the .NET Core framework or the previous .NET 4.6.1 framework. NopCommerce 4.0 runs on .NET 4.6.1 because at the time of its release Entity Framework Core (EF Core) did not support all the ORM features from the previous EF 6.0 version and most importantly it did not support lazy loading. EF Core 2.0 has already been released and it does support lazy loading among other new features and improvements. So you can soon expect the new nopCommerce 4.10 version, which is going to be based on .NET Core 2.1 and support EF Core.

Moving to .NET Core is a huge step forward for nopCommerce. Being able to run on any operating system will bring a whole new landscape of opportunities for the system and will certainly be instrumental in its development going forward. But we will have to wait for this in version 4.20.

So while the nopCommerce team is working hard to bring us the next two very important versions of the platform, let’s look at a few additional great features in 4.0.

Enabled "Force SSL for all site pages" by default

An important change in nopCommerce 4.0 is that the “Force SSL for all site pages” setting now comes enabled by default.

In previous versions this setting was not enabled by default and https was forced only for certain pages like the login, register, check out. Other pages could be accessed not only through https but also through HTTP despite the fact that the whole website was secured by an SSL.

Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome have recently implemented the Strict Secure Cookies policy. This means that cookies marked with the Secure attribute and transported via https cannot be read by a non-secure connection.

Let me try to explain the problem in the context of nopCommerce. You have your store secured by SSL but you have not forced it for all pages, which means that https is forced for only your login, register and checkout pages. Let’s imagine that a customer visits your nopCommerce store and goes through either the registration or login process. Because your store is protected by SSL these pages will be served via https and all authentication cookies that they write will be marked as Secure. If next the customer opens a page in your store via HTTP, let’s imagine that they load a bookmarked URL from your store or enter it directly in the browser, the request for the page will not be able to read the secure authentication cookies and the customer session will essentially be lost resulting in a dodgy user experience.

Google analytics plugin - reverse an e-commerce transaction and process only paid orders

In nopCommerce 4.0 when an order is canceled the Google Analytics plugin will send a reversed e-commerce transaction, effectively setting the amount of the original transaction to 0. This means that now your canceled orders will not result in inaccurate results in Google Analytics. Please note that reversing a transaction does not remove it. Both the original transaction and the reversed one are included in the reports in Google Analytics. You can see the transactions report if you log in to your GA account and go to Conversions -> Ecommerce -> Sales Performance.

The Google Analytics plugin in nopCommerce 4.0 improves on its reporting capabilities even further. Now it records a transaction only when the order is paid. Previously, the plugin sent the transaction data as soon as the order was placed. A client might place an order but never pay for it resulting in inaccurate and inflated revenue in Google Analytics.

Added a setting indicating whether to use canonical URLs with query string parameters

This is quite an esoteric new feature so let me start with a little bit of a background.

When paging through or applying filter criteria to a category, manufacturer, products by tag, etc. page, nopCommerce reloads the page with the paging or filter information added in the query string of the page url, essentially loading a different URL.

Different URLs mean different pages and thus different content to search engines. But in this case, the content can be quite similar. For example, if a customer visits a category page in your store and then filters by price, the chance is that at least some of the products and content will remain the same. Search engines will see this and consider it duplicate content which will hurt the SEO of your category page.

Canonical URLs aim to solve this problem by telling search engines that no matter what paging or filter criteria is applied to the page, they are viewing one and the same page. For example, if on my clothes category I have the canonical tag:

<link rel="canonical" href="http://www.themes.pavilion.nop-templates.com/clothes" />

and Google visits:

http://www.themes.pavilion.nop-templates.com/clothes?specs=1,2

and then visits:

http://www.themes.pavilion.nop-templates.com/clothes?specs=3,4

It will know that they are essentially looking at the main clothes category page.

Canonical URLs can be enabled for various nopCommerce pages which use paging and filtering. You can do so by checking the “Enable canonical URLs” option on the Settings -> General Settings-> SEO page.

In nopCommerce 4.0 you can have the query string (in our example “?specs=1,2”) included in the canonical URL. This means that:

http://www.themes.pavilion.nop-templates.com/clothes?specs=1,2

will have the following canonical URL:

<link rel="canonical" href="http://www.themes.pavilion.nop-templates.com/clothes?specs=1,2" />

and

http://www.themes.pavilion.nop-templates.com/clothes?specs=3,4

will have the following canonical URL:

<link rel="canonical" href="http://www.themes.pavilion.nop-templates.com/clothes?specs=3,4" />

If you go down this path, we would advise that you be absolutely sure that your filtered pages contain different content. Otherwise, your store SEO can be affected significantly.

But you might be wondering why have canonical URLs at all in this case. The answer is because the applied specification IDs in the “specs” filter can be in different order “specs=1,2” or “specs=2,1”. So you want to make sure that these two pages:

http://www.themes.pavilion.nop-templates.com/clothes?specs=1,2

http://www.themes.pavilion.nop-templates.com/clothes?specs=2,1

have the same canonical tag:

<link rel="canonical" href="http://www.themes.pavilion.nop-templates.com/clothes?specs=1,2" />

You can achieve this by going to the nopCommerce administration -> Settings -> All settings search for “”querystringincanonicalurlsenabled” and set it to True.

Plugins and Themes can be uploaded directly through the administration

NopCommerce 4.0 rolls out with a new easy way for store owners to upload plugins and themes to their stores. Plugins and themes .zip packages can now be directly uploaded through the administration. NopCommerce reads the theme or plugin information from the uploadedItems.json file, which each plugin or theme should include in their .zip package file. That uploadedItems.json file contains a list of the items included in the package, their type, version, system name, and directory path.

When such a package is uploaded through the administration, nopCommerce will delete the old version of the package if there is one, restart the application and load the new package.

Gone are the days when store administrators had to FTP to their server and upload and install manually a nopCommerce theme and plugin. In nopCommerce 4.0 this process is easier than ever, saving time and effort for the store owners and allowing developers to distribute their plugins and themes in a much more streamlined fashion.

Dynamical update the order total when checkout attributes are selected (shopping cart page).

Your store customers will surely appreciate the next feature. In nopCommerce 4.0 the order total on the shopping cart page is updated automatically when the client selects a checkout attribute. For example, if a customer adds a piece of jewelry to their shopping cart and checks the gift wrapping option, the order total will be automatically updated and will show the price of the jewelry plus the price for the wrapping.

Zip/postal code is a required field to estimate shipping

'Zip/postal code' is now a required field on the shopping cart page, which allows more accurate shipping cost estimation. Also, the country list has been updated and previously missing countries have been added.

Admin area improvements – managing product attributes

In previous nopCommerce versions, a store owner could manage product attributes directly in the product grid which was a clumsy and complicated user experience. Now a store owner can manage the product attributes on a separate page.

Override tax display type (excl/incl tax) based on customer role

In nopCommerce 4.0 a store owner can override the tax display type based on the customer role. For example, if you are selling both to clients and businesses, you will most probably add your business clients to a separate customer role, let’s say B2B. And you might need to exclude the tax from the product prices when these business customers are browsing your website. In nopCommerce 4.0 you can do this. What you need to do is go to your admin area and then edit the B2B role. On the administration page for the role, you will see a new “Override default tax display type” checkbox, which you need to check and then select the “Excluding tax” option from the “Default tax display type” drop-down.

Admin area - product details page improvements 

In nopCommerce 4.0 “visibly individually” option is available only for “simple” products. In previous nopCommerce versions, you had to make sure that this option is unchecked if you are creating a grouped product. 

Log an entry in the Activity Log when the System Log is cleared

Now, store owners can find out if and when someone clears the store System Log. In nopCommerce 4.0 an entry is created in the Activity Log every time the System Log is cleared.

"Accept terms of use" for vendors

Rarely an online marketplace will approve vendors unless they have explicitly signed and agreed to specific terms and conditions. Therefore in nopCommerce 4.0 store owners can now create “terms of service” and require all vendors applying for a vendor account to accept them.

Administrators (in impersonation mode) can buy products marked as “call for price”.

In nopCommerce 4.0 if a product is marked as "call for price", a store owner or a sales representative can now buy the product on behalf of a client. This option comes handy when a store owner tries to close a deal via phone or secure chat. For this feature to be available the store owner needs to go to Configuration > Settings > Order Settings and enable “Allow admins to buy Call for price products”.

With this last feature we are going to wrap up our digetst of the new nopCommerce 4.0 release. As with every release nopCommerce is boosted with useful new features and improvements. But unlike most releases, version 4.0 marks a turning point for the platform, which is the migration to ASP.NET Core.

We hope that this article has been useful to you. If you have questions, comments, suggestions for other nopCommerce 4.0 features which you would like us to elaborate on, do let us know in the comments.

NopCommerce 4.10 is out the door and looking awesome with great new features among which is the support for .NET Core 2.1. The release note of this new version is no different from any previous ones, it is quite long including more than 100 items. Just looking at it could be overwhelming. But no worries. We have got you covered with this article in which we are going to digest this information and give you a detailed overview of the most important new features in nopCommerce 4.10.

NopCommerce moves to .NET Core 2.1

Let’s start with the flagship feature of nopCommerce 4.10, namely the support for .NET Core 2.1. The previous version 4.0 was built on top of ASP.NET Core but at the same time was targeting .NET 4.6.1. For more information on why this is please read our blog post on What’s new in nopCommerce 4.0. In NopCommerce 4.10 this has changed and the platform now runs on .NET Core 2.10 and Entity Framework Core, which supports lazy loading. The move to .NET Core means that nopCommerce is now leaner, more modular, more versatile when it comes to deployment options (you do not have to have IIS to run your store) more performant and developers can make use of new .NET Core features like partial Tag Helpers, SignalR, Span<T>, Memory<T>, improved support for Docker container, etc. For more information please see this article.

It is important to note that nopCommerce 4.10, although now targeting .NET Core 2.10, still lacks cross-platform support. This important development was postponed for version 4.10 as it requires a substantial effort and would have delayed this release significantly. The next feature is the reason why nopCommerce 4.10 had to be released as soon as possible.

GDPR Support

The General Data Protection Regulation has been in effect since the 25th of May. The regulation simply requires businesses to protect the personal data and privacy of EU citizens for transactions that occur within EU member states. In its essence, the GDPR shifts the ownership of customer data from the organizations that use it to the individual customer. Customer data refers to any information such as name, address, and ID numbers; web data such as location, IP address, cookie data; or any genetic, psychological, cultural, religious and/or socioeconomic data that can be used to identify an individual.

GDPR is certainly complicated. The law is 90 pages and to become compliant may seem like a daunting task. Well, it could be. But fear not. NopCommerce 4.10 abstracts the complexities for you (the store owner) and gives you the tools to meet the following three major GDPR requirements:

• If you need to use the personal data of a customer for a specific purpose (for example send them promotional emails) you are required to have their consent. You need to make sure that you ask for their permission and have their consent.
• The customer can request to see what personal data related to them you are keeping in your store. You need to provide them with the means to see this data every time they require it.
• The customer should be able to delete their personal data from your store at any time. So you need to give them the tools to do so.

As you can see running a store and being GDPR compliant is not so difficult. It is also a great opportunity to gain the trust of EU customers. Fortunately, nopCommerce 4.10 provides GDPR support and you can meet these three major requirements.

Where to start? Let me point you to the right settings in the nopCommerce administration to get things going.

First, you need to enable the GDPR support for your store. Please keep in mind that it is only available for nopCommerce 4.10. Go to Settings -> GDPR Settings and mark the checkbox to get the GDPR support enabled. Once you do this, you can immediately log the “accept privacy policy” and the “newsletter subscription” default messages. Logging them means that you will be able to track the consent requests in the GDPR log which is located in Customers -> GDPR Request Log

You can create any type of consent messages depending on the nature of your business or the products and services you offer. For example, you have an online grocery store and you run a No Food Waste campaign. Each day you make a special selection of items which are about to expire soon. As part of the campaign, you wish to send a promo email to your customers of the daily promotions. You will need to get your customers' consent to send them promotional emails.

In the store administration, you can select which consents are required for your store. You can also map a consent to a specific store if you are running a multi-store installation of nopCommerce.

A record is kept for all consents a customer has granted or denied. The store owner can keep track of all consent activities in the GDPR request log.

The customers can view all GDPR-related activities on their My Account page. They can also keep track of the consents they have given or denied. They can see what kind of personal information the store keeps. A customer can delete their account at any time along with all their personal information. Once a consent is granted, a customer may choose to revoke their consent at any time. If this happens, a store owner needs to act accordingly and make sure that they don’t violate the customer’s consent.

The support for .NET Core 2.1 and GDPR are without a doubt the highlights in the 4.10 release. The shortlist of the features to follow are not to be overlooked either. They will also give a good reason to store owners to upgrade to nopCommerce 4.10.

A preview is available for news, topics, and blogs

As store owners, managing Nop-Templates.com, we find the next feature extremely valuable. In nopCommerce 4.10, there is a preview in the administration for the news, topics and blog posts. In previous versions, we had to publish an article to view it. This was inconvenient especially with articles which required extensive formatting. Making changes to a blog post, for example, when it is live is not a good practice. Fortunately, in nopCommerce 4.10 this problem is solved and store owners can edit and polish their content as much as they need before publishing it.

Polls per store option available

In previous nopCommerce versions, if you are running a multi-store and needed to have a poll on only one of your stores, the poll would appear on every store in your installation. Needless to say, this could be a showstopper in most cases because a poll relevant to one store is rarely applicable to other stores. Now in nopCommerce 4.10 polls can be created per store solving this problem.

Product review notification for customers

In nopCommerce 4.10 a customer gets a notification when they receive a reply to a product review. The option to send a notification can be useful when a store owner wants to be sure that a customer reads their reply. For example, let's say that a customer has left a bad review. As a store owner, it would be important to me to reply to them and ask follow-up questions. Their feedback can help me improve the product or the service. This will not be possible if there is no way for the customer to know that I have replied to their review.

Order details page (administration) - "Billing info" and "Shipping info" is displayed in a single tab

A simple change can make a big difference when it saves time. Now, a store owner can view the order billing and shipping information in a single tab. This makes it easy for the store owner to compare the billing and shipping addresses for each order. No switching of tabs is required anymore.

Product attribute price adjustment in percentage terms

Before nopCommerce 4.10, product prices could be adjusted based on specific attributes with a fixed amount only. In the new version, these price adjustments can be done in percentage points. This gives much more flexibility when running a sale for example. A store owner does not have to edit their price adjustments every time the price of a product changes.

“Required products” are automatically removed when the “main product” is removed from the shopping cart

You are probably aware that in nopCommerce, a product can have required products. These are products that are required to be purchased along with the main product and are automatically added to the shopping cart when the main product is added to the cart. In previous nopCommerce versions, buyers had to manually remove the required products from the shopping cart when the main product was removed. Not anymore. In nopCommerce 4.10 this is done automatically. A logical change which buyers and store owners will appreciate alike.

Reward points enhancement - minimum order total setting added

In nopCommerce 4.10, the store owner can specify the minimum order total required for a customer to receive reward points. For example, I would like to give 1 reward point for every 10 dollars spent but only if the order placed is for at least $100. I can set this in Settings -> Reward point ->Minimum order total. Anyone who has placed an order for less than that amount will not receive the reward points.

Delete products from the shopping cart or wish list in the admin area

Now, a store owner can delete products from the customer’s shopping cart or wish list in the administration. In previous versions, they had to be in “impersonated mode” to perform this action which was much more time-consuming.

Disable checkout

In nopCommerce 4.10 store owners can disable the checkout in the administration of their store. This comes in handy when a store owner wishes to have a product catalog website, where shoppers can browse products but cannot purchase them. To enable this option go to Settings -> Order Settings -> Checkout disabled.

Import product pictures from a remote server

A store owner needs to enable the "allow download images" setting to make use of this feature. This setting can be found in Catalog Settings -> Import/Export and will allow importing product images from a remote server when importing products from XML/XLS. The store owner can now include an URL from an external source in the picture fields of the XML/XLS file. In previous nopCommerce versions, a store owner could import product images only from a local machine.

Gift card balance displayed on the checkout page

If a customer applies a gift card to their order, the gift card balance will appear in the order summary. He will know exactly how much money is left in the gift card for future purchases. This was not possible in previous versions of nopCommerce. In fact, there was no way for the customer to know their gift card balance.

Discount coupon codes can be added to links to the store

We are crazy about this new feature and we are sure that other store owners will fall in love with it as well. In nopCommerce 4.10, the store owner can provide external links with a discount coupon code so that a shopper doesn’t have to apply the coupon code at the checkout. Why is this useful? I will illustrate the importance of this feature with a practical example.

Let’s say you have a 50% sale on all products and you run a Google ad to advertise this offer. For this purpose, you create a 50% discount in the store’s administration of type “assign to order total”. You will see that a link is automatically generated.

You point your Google ad to this link. Next, a shopper clicks on your ad, lands on your store and adds a product to their shopping cart. The 50% discount will be applied automatically and the price of the product will be discounted.

If your discount is assigned to a specific product or category the discounted prices will be immediately visible when your shoppers go to the product or category page, provided that they have the coupon code in the query string. Here’s an example.

Let’s say you want to have a sale on a specific product. What you have to do is assign your discount to the specific product and add the coupon code as a query parameter to the product link. Please click on the following link to see a real example:

http://demos.nop-templates.com/hp-envy-6-1180ca-156-inch-sleekbook?discountcoupon=456

As you can see the price of the HP Laptop is automatically discounted.

Google Analytics plugin now uses the new global site tag from Google

In nopCommerce 4.10 the Google Analytics plugin now uses the new global site tag (gtag.js) from Google. Why should you care? The global site tag is developed by the same team that created the Google Tag Manager at Google and replaces the analytics.js tag for Google Analytics and the conversion tracking tag for Google Ads. This means that the new gtag.js is designed to streamline tagging on your website for all Google Products. The global site tag sets new cookies for your website, which measure which clicks from your Google Ads bring traffic to your website. In this way, Google Ads can measure conversions much more accurately. You can also configure which interactions with your store should be considered Google Ads conversion. Most importantly by having the new global site tag on your website, you will be able to access new features as they are released on the new Google Marketing Platform.

CSS/style link tags in richTexbox Editor

If you are keen on having stunning looking-landing pages, like we are, then you will definitely appreciate this new feature. In nopCommerce 4.10 you can link CSS style sheets in the richTextbox editor. In this way, you can style every landing page or content generated with the richTextbox editor individually.

Let's next look at a few very useful new dvelopments that are more specific to nopCommerce plugin and theme developers.

Versioning of CSS and JS files

This is an important little addition, especially to theme developers. Before nopCommerce 4.10 if we were to modify the theme of a nopCommerce store by changing the CSS or JS files, the changes would not have been reflected in the browser of a customer who has visited the store before, unless they clear the browser cache. Let’s say we change the background color of the homepage of a store by modifying the main CSS file of the theme. All customers who visit the store for the first time will see the new background color. But customers who have previously visited the store will see the old background color because the browser is serving them the CSS file from its local cache.

NopCommerce 4.10 appends a version number to CSS and JS file links and bundles. Every modification changes the version in the links which means that every time a CSS or JS file is changed the browser sees a new file and loads it from the store server instead of loading it from its browser cache.

Move business logic from extension methods to services.

Extension methods could be useful for framework developer to expose functionality in a fluent syntax. But when you have classes that you can control which is the case with nopCommerce service classes, then extension methods could be harming the design of your code. Static classes that contain extension methods like anything static in OOP cannot benefit from polymorphism because they cannot implement interfaces or be inherited. Naturally, they are more difficult to test too.

Therefore, we welcome the fact that in version 4.10 the nopCommerce team has decided to move the code from various extensions methods like GetSeName, GetProductPicture, etc. to service classes.

In this way, the code in these methods can be overridden and also swapped through the DI Container.

Some developers might miss the fluentness of the extension methods syntax. Yet, being nopCommerce developers ourselves, we view this change as trading a highly sweetened fructose-syrup beverage with a freshly-squeezed orange juice.

Dropped support for SQL Server Compact

I am sure not many nopCommerce developers will miss SQL Server Compact especially that it has been in deprecation mode with no new releases planned for years now. So no surprises here, the nopCommerce team has decided to abandon this SQL Server edition.

Reindexing of database tables

In nopCommerce 4.10 if you open the administration and go to System -> Maintenance you will see a new panel named “Re-index database tables” with a “Re-index” button. Why would you want to press this button? Over time and especially with a busy nopCommerce website the indexes in the database can become fragmented. This can lead to a database that performs more slowly. In such situations, the new database reindexing feature can come in handy.

This concludes our description of the new nopCommerce 4.10 version. Now that you have a deeper understanding of why moving to .NET Core is important and what you might expect in terms of new features you can make an educated choice of whether to upgrade to the new version or not. If you need help with a nopCommerce upgrade or any type of nopCommerce development, do not hesitate to contact us.

Stay tuned for more awesome stuff to be published in our blog soon!

Think about the last time you booked a plane ticket or ordered something via the Internet - this is also the last time when you took part in an online business transaction. In simple words, any type of business that is conducted with the help of the Internet is part of the electronic commerce model, more commonly known as e-commerce.

This guide will help you understand the basics of e-commerce, what different types there are, and what are its Pros and Cons. It will also introduce you to some brief history and finally, give you some tips on how to set up your own electronic business platform.
And if you ask why all of this has any relevance to you at all, there’s a simple answer: as a customer, you get to know not only the benefits of online shopping but also what to look out for; as an entrepreneur, you get the opportunity to understand how you can start or grow your own online business.

What Is E-commerce?

Any big retailer that has a physical store but also sells their products online, such as Target, is doing electronic business. According to the Business Insider, some of the biggest online shopping destinations for Americans that don’t have physical stores are Amazon and AliExpress (which is owned by Chinese conglomerate Alibaba).
Electronic trade, however, is not in any way restricted to online shopping only. Transferring money through platforms such as PayPal, Google Wallet, or Apple Pay is also an example of e-commerce.
Generally, all services and products that are exchanged online fall under the definition of e-commerce.
There are several general platforms on which online trade takes place. They are:

• Storefronts
• Marketplaces
• Social Media

Storefronts

The virtual storefront is every website that allows the user to search for, order and pay for merchandise online. Merchants who want to sell their own products use the help of platforms that create storefronts for them. NopCommerce is one of the platforms that help e-merchants build an online store and tailor it to their preferences. One way to tailor a website is by choosing different templates - Nop-templates, for example, creates templates and plugins for nopCommerce websites.
Shopify and BigCommerce are other famous examples of platforms on top of which storefronts are created.

Marketplaces

Marketplaces don’t produce or own any inventory. What they do is connect buyers and sellers and allow them to exchange goods. Amazon, eBay, and Etsy are all examples of marketplaces that make the business transaction between merchants and customers possible. Such e-commerce platforms offer a wide variety of goods and more competitive prices due to the fact that there is a bigger pool of providers. Marketplaces run on different custom or ready-made platforms, which are tailored to support the intricacies of this business model. Interestingly, nopCommerce, mainly known as a platform for creating storefronts, also has multi-store and multi-vendor features which allow it to run full-blown marketplaces. If you need to build a nopCommerce marketplace, again you can get off to a quick start by choosing a nopcommerce template that supports the multi-store and multi-vendor capabilities of the system.

In most cases, as a retailer, you only participate in a marketplace you do not need one yourself. But you should know that even if you sell on Amazon or eBay or Etsy, it is generally a good practice to also have your own online storefront. Which one, the marketplace or your online store is your main retail channel, will largely depend on the products you sell and your business model. But in most cases, these two channels should be complementing one another. Marketplaces give you immediate exposure to a large audience of potential buyers but at the same time have certain rules that you need to observe, and fees, which are usually a percentage of your sales. With your own e-commerce website, you have full control over your online operation and you will not be forgoing a fixed percentage of your revenue with every sale. This, of course, comes at a price. You will need to invest much more resources into marketing your website.

Social Media

Social media platforms are no longer used solely as a means of advertising a product. Facebook, for example, now offers the so-called buy button that can appear on any post or even in Facebook Messenger. With one click, people can from their News Feed or their Messenger conversation.
Additionally, Instagram now has a feature that allows users to click on an item they like and immediately go to the website where they can buy it. This is one way in which social media has helped e-commerce expand.
Social media also has a significant impact on the preferences of customers. Data from the International Journal of Market Research shows that consumers have greater trust and are more inclined to buy a product after it has been recommended by their peers or influencers on platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook. Social media, therefore, proves as a valuable tool for increasing the popularity of e-commerce brands.

Why Is E-commerce Such a Big Deal?

According to e-Marketer, 2.14 billion users will be buying online by 2021. A venue of e-commerce that helps for its rapid growth is mobile commerce, also known as m-commerce, where customers shop online through their phones or tablets.

The most important contributor to this growth is the so-called responsive design technology that allows websites to adjust to different screen resolutions and look equally good on all of them. Everyone with a web store needs to make sure they are using a platform with responsive design. Otherwise, their websites won’t appear in search results made on mobile.
The convenience of m-commerce lies in social media outlets such as Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest, which now allow for direct purchase through abuy button.
Additionally, platforms such as Apple Pay and Android Pay allow faster money transfer than ever. Apple Pay now uses the cash card that is connected to a user’s Apple ID not only for purchases of apps but also for online and in-store payments.
Similarly, Android Pay saves users’ cash card information and works with the near field communication (NFC) technology of phones. This way, users can pay for items and withdraw money from ATMs without using their physical card.

Types of E-commerce

As we mentioned above, one popular way to classify e-commerce is according to the platforms on which it takes place (i.e. storefronts, marketplaces, and social media).
However, there are two other ways in which e-commerce can be classified. It can be done based on:

• the sold goods
• the involved parties.

Types of E-commerce Based On the Sold Goods

The important factor in this type of distinction lies on whether the products sold are:

• Physical Goods
  Walmart, Wish, and AliExpress are three of the most popular online shopping sites that sell different physical goods. There are countless examples of this type of e-commerce. If people want to buy clothes online, they may go on Asos. If someone wants to order food supplements for fitness programs, they can go to My Protein.
  No matter what they’re selling, all of these platforms have three common stages:

1. Online order and payment
2. Management of inventory
3. Delivery.

• Services
  Buying services online is now becoming a global practice. If you’re having a hard time figuring out how this can happen, think about the following:
  Have you booked an Airbnb apartment for some of your travels recently?
  Or:
  Are you subscribed to Netflix? Then you’ve bought an online service.

• Digital Products
  E-books, online courses, graphics, and software all fall into the category of digital products.
  Slack, for example, is a software for communication and collaboration between team members. Coursera is a platform that provides online courses and degrees on a wide variety of subjects such as humanities, business, economics, computer science, etc.

Types of E-commerce Based On the Involved Parties

The parties that take part in e-commerce are typically divided into six categories:

• Business-to-Consumer (B2C)
  This is the most common of all the categories. Nike, IKEA, and Sephora are all examples of this business model.
  Typically, the B2C e-commerce entails businesses that sell goods to the public through the Internet and the so-called shopping cart model (TODO: link to our story).
• Business-to-Business (B2B)
  This model entails any company that is selling its services to other businesses.
  An example of B2B is Nop-Templates: if a webshop owner wants to have a specific theme for their webpage, Nop-Templates will either provide a selection of already created themes (each of the themes comes with 13 plugins) or design and build a custom web store for the owner.

• Consumer-to-Business (C2B)
  Unlike other more traditional models (such as B2C), here the roles are inverted: the consumer takes on the role of a seller while the business becomes the buyer.
  C2B happens when a consumer offers their own price for the company’s product or sells a service to a business.
  One example of C2B is bloggers who review products on YouTube - usually either the products are sent free of charge or there is a payment for the bloggers.
  Most of the hiring websites are also an example of C2B - the companies are paying to get a service but the consumers are those who decide whether the salary is acceptable or not.
  Pebble, a company that produces smartwatches, used Kickstarter to fund the manufacturing of its first smartwatch. This is also an example of C2B e-commerce because Pebble used customer’s donations to complete its business process.
  Along with nine other successful companies, Pebble is an example of a company built on Kickstarter. Its crowdfunding campaigns ranked number one and three on Kickstarter’s list. They were released in 2012 and 2015 and together have raised $30.6 million for the company. 
• Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C)
  This one is pretty straightforward. Any business transaction that happens between two consumers is C2C e-commerce.
  Craigslist and eBay are two of the more famous examples of C2C.
• Business-to-Government (B2G)
  Business-to-Government e-commerce involves businesses that are paying for services provided by the government.
  If a business pays its taxes online, for example, it is doing B2G e-commerce.
  This model is also known as Business-to-Administration (B2A) and the two (B2G and B2A) can be used interchangeably.
• Consumer-to-Government (C2G)
  This one is similar to B2G. The only obvious difference is that this model involves individuals who are paying for services provided by the government.
  Such may include taxes, social, security, health, or education.

A Brief History of E-commerce

E-commerce dates farther back than you might think.
Here’s a brief timeline of e-commerce and the more important events that precede it:

1969

The first major Internet provider company in the United States, CompuServe, was launched. The company is famous for developing the so-called videotex technology - one of the earliest systems to deliver interactive content and display it on a video monitor.

1984

When a 72-year-old British grandmother ordered groceries from her local supermarket using her TV remote control, she had no idea she was making history. Part of an initiative to help the elderly, she was probably one of the first people to shop online from their home.
The lady used Videotex system - a type of computer technology which connected her TV to a telephone line and then to a retailer computer, which would process the transaction.
BBC published an article on the discovery that started with an order for margarine, eggs, and cornflakes and that shaped the way e-commerce looks today.
That same year, CompuServe launched Electronic Mall, which resembled a contemporary e-commerce platform.

1992

Book Stacks Unlimited, the first online bookstore, was launched by Charles M. Stack. It offered 500,000 titles as well as daily literary journals, book recommendations from staff and search options by title, authors, subject, keyword, or ISBN number. Later, it was purchased by Barnes & Noble.

1994

Although there are some previously known online orders, the first actual e-commerce transaction happened in 1994. The first e-commerce sold object was the CD “Ten Summoners’ Tales” by Sting and the order plus shipping cost buyer Phil Brandenberger $12.48.

1995

Jeff Bezos launched Amazon, the largest internet retailer in the world. Originally, it was only selling books and a bell would ring in the office every time someone completed an order. Within weeks, orders were so frequent that the employees couldn’t keep up with ringing the bell and had to shut it off.
Another e-commerce giant released in the same year is eBay. Originally, however, it appeared under the name AuctionWeb. The first thing bought on eBay was a broken laser pointer. Some other interesting purchases on eBay are a yacht for $168 million, an airplane, and the town of Bufford, Wyoming.

1997

Netflix, the world’s leading stream entertainment service, was released. It started out as a service that would send DVDs to its subscribers on demand. It was later in 2007 when Netflix began providing streaming service.

1998

PayPal was launched. Interestingly enough, PayPal was voted one of the 10 worst business ideas of 1999. Needless to say, PayPal is another big player in the way e-commerce looks today. It was bought by eBay in 2002 but spun off and became a public company again in 2015.
Currently, PayPal operates in 31 countries as over 40% of the users are from the U.S.

1999

Alibaba was launched in China by Jack Ma. He set the platform with $60,000 borrowed from 18 people. Currently, Alibaba dominates not only the e-commerce landscape in China but also in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
In the city of Hangzhou (with a population of over 9 million people), for example, Alibaba is a major partner for the “City Brain” project. The project aims to improve the life of citizens by tracking their social activity, daily commutes, purchases, etc.
By collecting such information City Brain has developed a network around the city, which allows it to inform citizens and authorities of crime, road accidents, and even traffic congestion.
In terms of e-commerce, the City Brain project helps Alibaba gain more insight into what customers want.

2005

Etsy was founded in Brooklyn, New York. Originally, its core rule was that everything posted on the website must be handmade by the seller.
Thus, Etsy expanded the business world of small sellers and crafters. As of 2013, this rule was dropped.

2006

Shopify was launched. Initially, the company was an online store that sold snowboard equipment.
However, when co-founder Tobias Lütke couldn’t find a suitable software for the online store (which was called Snowdevil) he built his own one. This is also when he realized that e-commerce software may prove a more successful business than a snowboard shop.

2009

Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey founded Square, Inc. The company started with the creation of a credit card reader that made accepting card payment easier and more affordable for small businesses.
It later expanded to technology for contactless payment and chip readers as well as products such as Square cash, which allows users to transfer money through their mobile apps.

Advantages and Disadvantages of E-commerce

According to Statista, 1.66 billion people around the world have purchased goods online in 2017. Just for a comparison, check this out:
As of 2018, the number of people globally that use the Internet exceeds 4 billion.
E-commerce is growing faster each year and already nearly half of the digital population worldwide has participated in e-commerce.
If you’re one of those people or if you are hesitant whether to try it out, here are the pros and cons of e-commerce for you.

Advantages of E-commerce

• International reach. E-commerce is without a doubt the easiest way to reach other markets without an enormous investment. Customers may be from all over the world and this provides a lot of room for business growth. For example, a pair of Ugg boots will be sold mostly in Australia during the winter there. However, during a winter in Europe or in the United States, Ugg (having an online purchasing platform) will keep selling boots. Thus, it is more likely to make a better profit throughout the whole year.
• 24/7 availability. Another perk, which is closely related to the first one, is the constant availability of online stores. Customers from every point on the planet can access the website and complete an order at any point of the day. This is, naturally, much more convenient and preferable. As for the retailers, the constant availability results in increased sales.
• Cost reduction. An online-based only business entails fewer employees (at least at the beginning), and thus, fewer business expenses. Cost is also reduced when there is no need to pay for rent, store equipment or inventory. Smaller operational costs allow retailers to offer more competitive prices, making e-commerce even more appealing to the consumers.
• Tailored customer experience. All of the data customers provide during a single purchase or even through browsing online storefronts is often used as a strategy to increase sales. Apps such as Storakle offer opportunities for merchants to track customer preferences and create emails specifically tailored to their likings. Platforms that create personalized websites are also quickly becoming a successful strategy for attracting more and more people to e-commerce. Another reason why some might like online shopping better is the power they gain through it. Many buyers prefer it because they are able to compare prices and receive full information about their desired products.
• Increased productivity. In addition to everything mentioned above, e-commerce companies have an increase in productivity due to several factors. The absence of long queues and the convenience of ordering from your own home are only part of the reason why some customers find online shopping more attractive and prefer websites to physical stores. A higher number of orders can be processed much more easily, especially in cases when e-merchants decide to drop ship (meaning, goods are provided from a manufacturer and sold to customers through the e-commerce platform, without the owner of the platform actually seeing or handling the product).
• Niche markets development. Everything specific, from organic beauty products to handmade items, falls into the category of niche e-commerce. When it comes to the niche business, e-commerce proves to be a lot more efficient (and merciful). Because of the reduced expenses and the opportunity to sell to a worldwide-range of customers, niche markets have a greater chance of succeeding if they’re online-based.

Disadvantages of E-commerce

• Lack of human interaction. While for some people avoiding the queue and the shopping malls is a benefit, those who prefer face-to-face interaction may see it as a drawback. What also creates problems is the inability of customers to try goods out and to ask for the help of a sales assistant. This disadvantage is directly linked to customer dissatisfaction.
• Privacy issues and safety concerns. One of the reasons why people are reluctant to switch to e-commerce is their concern with the safety of their data. The minimum information online buyers give is their credit card number and address. Sometimes, especially when the websites are not of well-known retailers, customers may feel that their transaction or even personal information may be exploited.
• Customer dissatisfaction. If it happens so that the customer’s order does not meet expectations, this may well be the last time they order from a specific platform. Inability to try out goods is only one of the factors contributing to customer dissatisfaction. If a business representative fails to reply to customer’s query on time, this may be the deal breaker for a potential buyer. Another common feature of e-commerce that is prone to lead to customers leaving the site without buying anything is a long check-out page. Additionally, the wait for shipping is another area where buyers may lose their patience.
• Dependence on electronic technologies. For most customers, a site that crashes or loads too slowly would be a deal breaker. If therefore, the merchant does not choose the platform appropriately, they may lose a great number of buyers to technological issues.
• Causes job losses. According to the Business Insider, e-commerce is one of the reasons why retailers are rapidly closing stores. In 2017, an estimated number of 89, 000 merchandise workers have lost their jobs. While e-commerce does not give new job opportunities to retail workers it opens new positions for technologically skilled professionalists. This is why this disadvantage is widely debated. 

The Important Steps to Setting Up and Managing Your Own E-commerce Platform

For those who want to start their own e-commerce business (or for those who are simply interested in how it all works), here’s some brief information on the most important steps:

• Choose a product. This is, naturally, the first and most important step for anyone who wishes to dive into the world of e-commerce. Whatever the chosen product is, there are four main methods of sourcing it: making, manufacturing, wholesale, and dropshipping.
• Set up a platform. Of course, after careful planning and research, the second most important aspect of any e-commerce business is the platform through which it’s going to be done. The platform can either be made from scratch (where you or a hired freelancer will build a website specifically customized for you) or rely on software that provides already existing templates and helps for the support of your website (such as Nop-Templates).
• Promote your website. There are many ways to promote your own store and you should do this immediately after launching the website. If you don’t want to spend money on a PR professional or don’t have the budget for paid advertising, there are other options for you. Many people start out by promoting their website on their own social media channels, be it through YouTube videos or posts on Twitter and Facebook. Marketing through word of mouth is also very important. It goes hand in hand in hand with posting reviews and testimonials on your website. People are more likely to trust a product after a positive feedback from other users, especially when it comes from friends/relatives/trustworthy sources. Another useful tool for promotion is email marketing. Offering customers special deals, suggesting products they might like, or even giving a discount on customers’ birthdays are common strategies for email marketing. If you do it right, it may not only increase your sales but also create a returning customer base.
• Measure the success of your marketing efforts. The first thing you should check is the number of visitors per month. It is also important to know where they came from (i.e. if they found you through Google search or from any social media channel) so that you know what’s working best and what can be improved. You should always make sure to track the conversion rate of your website. That means that you should know how many visitors of the website actually bought something. While the conversion rate is important, you should also consider some factors that are preceding it. The bounce rate will give you useful insights about your visitors. It measures how many people stayed on a single page and then left. Knowing the average time users spend on your page will further help you improve your website.

Successful Businesses That Started With Little To No Venture Capital

You’re probably thinking that no matter how great your idea is you have to invest a lot of money to make it work. It turns out, you’re wrong. Several companies have started out with little to no money and have subsequently become successful. Dive in to see how they’ve made it.

Turf and Needle

Turf and Needlehas been selling and manufacturing mattresses since 2012. In the beginning, the company did not have a brick and mortar store and was only selling online.
The idea of the company was born when co-creator JT Marino and his wife overpaid for a poor-quality mattress. Marino and his colleague Daehee Park quit their engineering jobs and invested $3,000 each for the creation of an e-commerce mattress company.
By its first year, their product was the No.1 mattress on Amazon. Later, they took a $500,000 loan and opened a physical store in San Francisco. In 2016 the revenue of the company was over $100 million.

Cards Against Humanity

The creators of the game used the help of Kickstarter to fund its launch. Originally, it was only available online - first on Kickstarter and then on Amazon and on Cards Against Humanity’s official website.
With a venture budget of $15,570, it became the No.1 game on Amazon a month after it was released in 2011 and has generated an estimated $12 million in revenue.

RXBar

The protein bar company was created with no outside funding. Creators Peter Rahal and Jared Smith set up a web shop because it was easier to sell the product online than to find a physical venue for it.
Rahal and Smith invested $5,000 each and started selling the bars in 2013. Their idea was to popularize the product one bar at a time - at the beginning, the two of them would make the bars by hand. Sometimes they would even give the bars for free to coffee shop and cross-fit center owners.
In 2017, Kellogg’s bought the company for $600 million.

Ipsy

Ipsy, an e-commerce company that sends subscribers a monthly sample of beauty products, was not started with outside capital.
Michelle Phan, the creator of Ipsy, is a beauty vlogger on YouTube and this is how she attracted most of Ipsy’s customers. With over 8 million YouTube subscribers, Phan has managed to attract organic members of Ipsy and create a company with an annual revenue of $120 million.
Here’s how it works: members receive a “Glam Bag” with five sample products for $10 each month. However, Ipsy does not pay anything for its products. Rather, social media influencers promote the product in their makeup tutorials and brands receive detailed feedback from subscribers.

Conclusions

By now, you should be fairly familiar with the basics of e-commerce and the different platforms through which it takes place as well as why some people might prefer it to the traditional brick and mortar (meaning, where there is a physical organization or building) business model.
You now know that e-commerce is not as complicated as you might have initially thought and that it can be divided both based on the involved parties and on the sold goods. If you wish to know even more, dig deeper into the world of e-commerce by exploring other articles on our blog.
In case you feel we’ve missed something, or there was a question we did not answer, feel free to tell us in the comment section below.

Think about the last time you booked a plane ticket or ordered something via the Internet. You probably do not realize it but by doing so you have taken part in an online business transaction, or e-commerce.

In simple words, any type of business that involves the exchange of goods for money and is conducted with the help of the Internet is part of the electronic commerce model, more commonly known as e-commerce.

Whether you are a daily online shopper waiting for those sweet Amazon deals of the day or an entrepreneur thinking of starting your own online store, you are probably reading this article because you feel that there is more to e-commerce than just money changing hands online.

Indeed the field of e-commerce is vast. And trying to comprehend all its aspects and nuances could be mind-boggling. Therefore, we have composed this comprehensive guide which will provide you with a solid and structured understanding of e-commerce today.

If you continue reading below you will learn about:

• What e-commerce is and the types of platforms it can be conducted on
• The different types of e-commerce
• A brief history of e-commerce
• Advantages and disadvantages of adopting e-commerce
• Steps for setting up your own online store
• Examples of successful online businesses that started with almost no capital

Let’s jump right in...

What is e-commerce?

Any retailer that sells their products online is doing e-commerce. Target, for example, have huge physical stores but also sell online. However, there are many retail businesses that don’t need or have physical stores. Rather, they sell products solely online. Two famous examples of such companies are Amazon and AliExpress, which are among the biggest online shopping destinations for Americans.

However, electronic trade is not restricted to online shopping only. Transferring money through platforms such as PayPal, Google Wallet, or Apple Pay is also an example of e-commerce.

Generally, all services and products that are exchanged online fall under the definition of e-commerce.

E-commerce channels

There are three general channels in which online trade takes place. They are:

• Storefronts
• Marketplaces
• Social Media

Let’s look more closely at each of them.

Storefronts

A virtual storefront is a website that allows the user to search for, order and pay for merchandise online. These websites run on software platforms specialized for e-commerce. NopCommerce is one such platform, which helps e-merchants build and run an online store. Other famous examples include Shopify and BigCommerce.

You might be wondering how one platform can fit all merchants when they have different requirements and needs. All e-commerce platforms can have their design tailored through the use of themes, also called templates. New features and functionalities can be added through the use of plugins, also called extensions. Ready-made themes and plugins allow store owners to get their online stores off the ground quickly and with minimal effort.

Marketplaces

Marketplaces don’t produce or own any inventory. What they do is connect buyers and sellers and allow them to exchange goods. Amazon, eBay, and Etsy are all examples of marketplaces that make the business transaction between merchants and customers possible. Such e-commerce platforms offer a wide variety of goods and more competitive prices due to the fact that there is a bigger number of providers.  Marketplaces run on different custom or ready-made e-commerce systems, which are tailored to support the intricacies of this business model.

Interestingly, nopCommerce for example, mainly known as a platform for creating storefronts, also has multi-store and multi-vendor features which allow it to run full-blown marketplaces. If you need to build a marketplace on top of nopCommerce, again you can tailor it and get off to a quick start by choosing a nopCommerce template that supports the multi-store and multi-vendor capabilities of the system.

But in most cases, as a retailer, you only participate in a marketplace, you do not need one yourself. But you should know that even if you sell on Amazon or eBay or Etsy, it is generally a good practice to also have your own online storefront. Which one, the marketplace or your online store is your main retail channel, will largely depend on the products you sell and your business model. But in most cases, these two channels should be complementing one another. Marketplaces give you immediate exposure to a large audience of potential buyers but at the same time have certain rules that you need to observe, and fees, which are usually a percentage of your sales. With your own e-commerce website, you have full control over your online operation and you will not be forgoing a fixed percentage of your revenue with every sale. This, of course, comes at a price. You will need to invest much more resources into marketing your website.

Social media

Social media has a significant impact on the preferences of customers. Data from the International Journal of Market Research shows that consumers have greater trust and are more inclined to buy a product after it has been recommended by their peers or influencers on platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook. 

Therefore, social media is largely used by e-commerce companies to advertise their products and increase the popularity of their brands.

But retailers don’t only use social media as an advertising tool. Facebook, for example, now offers the so-called buy button that can be added to ads or even Facebook Messenger conversations. With one click, people can order from their News Feed or from a chat window in Messenger. 

Additionally, Instagram now has a feature that allows users to click on an item they like and immediately get redirected to a page where they can buy it.

Therefore, social media can also be considered a major e-commerce platform.

M-commerce

Whether it is a storefront, a marketplace or social media it is important to note that nowadays more and more people use their mobile phones and tablets to interact with these channels and buy online. This phenomenon is called mobile commerce, also known as m-commerce, and is the single most important factor in the rapid growth of e-commerce.

According to Statista, in 2017 online sales reached $2.304 trillion and 58.9% ($1.357 trillion) were done on mobile devices. E-commerce sales are predicted to reach $4.848 trillion by 2021 and m-commerce is expected to account for 73.3% ($3.556  trillion) of these.

Statista: Source 1, Source 2

The catalyst for the sudden and rapid growth of m-commerce is the responsive design technology that allows websites to adjust to different screen resolutions and preserve their content and features on smaller screens.

Everyone with a web store needs to make sure they are using a responsive design or they will be losing a substantial number of their potential customers. Moreover, Google recently launched their mobile-first index. In simple words, when people do a Google search on their phone, Google serves results only from websites that are mobile-friendly. This means that if your website does not have a responsive design or in other words is not mobile-friendly, it will not only provide a bad user experience but also will not appear in searches done on mobile.

Another important factor in the rise of m-commerce is the development of technologies such as Apple Pay and Android Pay. Both technologies allow cashless payments in-store or on the web. Many ATM providers have also started adopting Apple Pay and Android Pay so that users can withdraw cash from ATMs by just using their phones.

Now that you have a good understanding of where e-commerce takes place let’s look at the different types of e-commerce out there.

Types of e-commerce

There are two main ways in which e-commerce can be classified. It can be done based on:

• the sold goods
• the involved parties

Types of e-commerce based on the sold goods

There are two main categories of products sold online:

• Physical Goods

Walmart, Wish, and AliExpress are three of the most popular online shopping sites that sell physical goods. There are countless examples of this type of e-commerce. If people want to buy clothes online, they may go to Asos. If someone wants to order food supplements for fitness programs, they may go to My Protein. 

When physical goods are involved in the shopping process always goes through the following three stages:

1. Online order and payment
2. Preparing the goods for shipping
3. Delivery

• Services

Buying services online is now becoming a global practice.  Have you booked an Airbnb apartment for some of your travels recently? Are you subscribed to Netflix?

If the answer to any of these is yes then you have bought an online service.

• Digital Products

E-books, online courses, graphics, and software all fall into the category of digital products.

Slack, for example, is a software for communication and collaboration between team members.

Coursera is a platform that provides online courses and degrees on a wide variety of subjects such as humanities, business, economics, computer science, etc.

Please note that when digital products and services are considered the common distinction between these two types of offerings is substantially blurred. In the physical world a product exists in space and time while a service does not. But in the digital world this is no longer valid. So instead of passing down the terminology from the physical world to the digital, we can label digital products and services with one common term, which is “digital offering”.

Types of e-commerce based on the involved parties

E-commerce can be divided into six categories based on the involved parties:

• Business-to-Consumer (B2C)

This is the most common category. Nike, IKEA, and Sephora are all examples of this business model.

Typically, the B2C e-commerce refers to businesses that sell goods to the public through the Internet through the so-called shopping cart model.

• Business-to-Business (B2B)

This model refers to companies that sell their services to other businesses.

An example of B2B is Nop-Templates. If a webshop owner needs a specific theme for their online store, Nop-Templates will either provide a selection of already created themes or design and build a custom theme.

• Consumer-to-Business (C2B)

Unlike other more traditional models (such as B2C), here the roles are inverted: the consumer takes on the role of a seller while the business becomes the buyer. C2B happens when a consumer offers their own price for the company’s product or sells a service to a business.

One example of C2B is bloggers who review products on YouTube. In return, these bloggers either receive money or the products themselves free of charge.

Most of the hiring websites like Upwork or Freelance.com are also an example of C2B. There, individuals offer different services like web design or software development to businesses. 

An interesting example of a platform where C2B happens is Kickstarter. Kickstarter is a platform where startups raise money from the public to launch their products. This process is called crowdfunding.

For example, Pebble is one of the successful companies that started their business through Kickstarter. The company that produces smart watches manufactured its first product with the help of two crowdfunding campaigns. 

• Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C)

This one is pretty straightforward. Any business transaction that happens between two consumers is C2C e-commerce.

Craigslist and eBay are two of the most famous platforms where C2C e-commerce takes place.

• Business-to-Government (B2G)

Business-to-Government e-commerce involves businesses that are paying for services provided by the government.

If a business pays its taxes online, for example, it is doing B2G e-commerce. This model is also known as Business-to-Administration (B2A) and the two acronyms (B2G and B2A) can be used interchangeably.

• Consumer-to-Government (C2G)

This one is similar to B2G. The only obvious difference is that this model involves individuals and not businesses that are paying for services provided by the government.

Such services may include taxes, social, security, health, or education.

Now that you know what e-commerce is, let’s build on our understanding of it by looking back at its history and main stepping stones.

A brief history of e-commerce

E-commerce dates farther back than you might think and its story is quite an interesting one.
Here’s a brief timeline of the more important events that shaped e-commerce:

1969

The first major Internet provider company in the United States, CompuServe, was launched. The company is famous for developing the so-called Videotex technology - one of the earliest systems to deliver interactive content and display it on a video monitor. 

1984

When a 72-year-old British grandmother ordered groceries from her local supermarket using her TV remote control, she had no idea she was making history. Part of an initiative to help the elderly, she was probably one of the first people to shop online from home. The lady used the Videotex system, which connected her TV to a telephone line and then to a retailer computer, which would process the transaction. BBC published an article on the discovery that started with an order for margarine, eggs, and cornflakes and that shaped the way e-commerce looks today.

That same year, CompuServe launched Electronic Mall, which resembled a contemporary e-commerce platform.

1992

Book Stacks Unlimited, the first online bookstore, was launched by Charles M. Stack. It offered 500,000 titles as well as daily literary journals, book recommendations from staff and search options by title, authors, subject, keyword, or ISBN number. Later, it was purchased by Barnes & Noble.

1994

The first ever e-commerce sale which involved a secure online financial transaction happened in 1994 when Dan Kohn sold a CD, the “Ten Summoners’ Tales” by Sting over his website NetMarket. The order plus shipping cost buyer Phil Brandenberger $12.48.

1995

Jeff Bezos launched Amazon, the largest internet retailer in the world. Originally, it was only selling books and someone will ring a bell in the office every time an order was placed. Within weeks, orders were so frequent that the employees couldn’t keep up with ringing the bell and had to shut it off.

Another e-commerce giant released in the same year is eBay. Originally it appeared under the name AuctionWeb. The first thing bought on eBay was a broken laser pointer. Some other interesting purchases on eBay are a yacht for $168 million, an airplane, and the town of Bufford, Wyoming.

1997

Netflix, the world’s leading streaming entertainment service, was released. It started out as a service that would send DVDs to its subscribers on demand. It wasn’t until later in 2007 when Netflix began providing a streaming service. 

1998

PayPal was launched. Interestingly enough, PayPal was voted one of the 10 worst business ideas of 1999. Needless to say, PayPal has had a great impact on the way e-commerce looks today. It was bought by eBay in 2002 but spun off and became a public company again in 2015.

Currently, PayPal operates in 31 countries with over 40% of its users from the U.S.

1999

Alibaba was launched in China by Jack Ma. He set the platform with $60,000 borrowed from 18 people. Currently, Alibaba dominates not only the e-commerce landscape in China but also is a major pioneer in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

In the city of Hangzhou (with a population of over 9 million people), for example, Alibaba is a major partner for the “City Brain” project. The project aims to improve the life of citizens by tracking their social activity, daily commutes, purchases, etc.

By collecting such information City Brain has developed a network around the city, which allows it to inform citizens and authorities of crime, road accidents, and even traffic congestion.

In terms of e-commerce, the City Brain project helps Alibaba gain more insight into the behavior and preferences of consumers.

2005

Etsy was founded in Brooklyn, New York. Originally, its core requirement was that everything posted on the website must be handmade by the seller. Thus, Etsy expanded the business world of small sellers and crafters. As of 2013, this rule was dropped.

2006

Shopify was launched. Initially, the company was an online store that sold snowboard equipment. However, when co-founder Tobias Lütke couldn’t find a suitable software for the online store (which was called Snowdevil) he built one himself. This is also when he realized that he can offer this software to other retailers.

2007

Magento was launched. The story of this famous PHP e-commerce platform actually starts in 2001 when Roy Rubin, then a student at UCLA started Varien, a web development company doing a little bit of everything including CMS and e-commerce.

At the time another e-commerce platform, OsCommerce, was ruling the PHP e-commerce market and Roy realized that there weren’t many companies providing services on top of OsCommerce and most of these services were not really sophisticated. Varien became a leading OsCommerce development company, but the more Roy and his team worked with OsCommerce the more they realized that the system was lacking.

Finally, in 2007 Varien decided to develop a much more refined and versatile e-commerce platform and launched Magento in August 31st the same year.

Magento went on to become the most popular open source e-commerce system and in 2011 was acquired by eBay for 180 million dollars.

In June 2018, Adobe acquired Magento from eBay for 1.6 billion dollars.

2008

NopCommerce, the most popular .NET open-source e-commerce platform, was launched in Yaroslavl, Russia. Similarly to Shopify, NopCommerce originated as an online store.

Founder Andrei Mazulnitsyn, a .NET developer by profession, ran an online flower shop for a short period of time, before realizing that the .NET technology space was missing a ready-made e-commerce platform.

This is when he started nopCommerce, the first .NET open source e-commerce platform. Now, 10 years later, nopCommerce has become the Magento of the .NET world.

2009

Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey founded Square, Inc. The company started with the creation of an affordable credit card reader for small to medium size retailers to accept card payments.

This technology was later complemented with contactless payments as well as products such as Square cash, which allows users to transfer money using Square’s Cash App.

2012

Apoorva Mehta, a former Amazon employee, started InstaCart to provide same-day grocery delivery service. Customers can order groceries through the InstaCart app or website and the order is delivered by a personal shopper. Customers can pay with Android Pay or Apple Pay.

Initially, InstaCart personal shoppers would simply go to a store and purchase the ordered items at a retail price and then add the delivery fee plus a 10 to 20 percent markup. But as the company grew InstaCart established relationships with grocery companies which share their markup and allow InstaCart users to shop at in-store prices.

2014

Apple Pay was launched allowing users to make payments online or in-store using their mobile phone. Apple Pay keeps credit cards information within its digital wallet service. It uses the near-field communication (NFC) chips embedded in your Apple device (phone or watch) to communicate with card readers (which also use NFC) to make contactless payments.

You can also use Apple Pay to pay in apps or on online stores. You can even withdraw cash from ATMs provided the ATM supports Apple Pay.

2015

Google launched Android Pay which is similar to Apple Pay but for Android devices.

2015

In the same year, Facebook launched its “Buy Button” and Pinterest launched its Buyable Pins which allow users to sell products and services directly on social media.

Shopify quickly adopted the idea and shortly after integrated with Facebook and Pinterest so that Shopify store owners can sell their products directly on Facebook and Pinterest.

2015

The first Hema store was launched and it was part of Alibaba’s “New Retail” strategy to integrate online shopping with brick-and-mortar retail. As of September 2018, the Hema stores are numbering 65. A Hema store is essentially a blend of online and offline retail. Customers can scan the products in the store using the Hema app and get detailed information related to contents, manufacturing, certificates, recipe ideas, etc. The stores also function as a distribution center and every customer within 3 kilometers can order online and receive their goods within 30 minutes. Some of the Hema stores feature the so-called Robot.He restaurant where customers can order food using the Hema app and the food is delivered by robotic devices.

These high tech stores seem poised for all kinds of innovation and knowing Alibaba, we can assume that there is big data, machine learning, tracking, facial recognition and all manner of cutting-edge technology working behind the scene and laying the foundation for the best shopping experience to be seen yet.

2016

Alibaba launched Buy+ AR, VR. Using a Google Cardboard VR headset customers can walk through a virtual mall, browse items and look at them in a 360 view in great detail. This relatively new service is part of Alibaba’s effort to blend online shopping with entertainment. It also allows brands that do not have physical shops to reach a wider audience.

Advantages and disadvantages of e-commerce

According to Statista, 1.7 billion people around the world have purchased goods online in 2017. This is nearly half of the total 3.6 billion Internet users.

If you’re one of those people or if you are hesitant whether to try it out, here are the pros and cons of e-commerce.

Statista: Source 1, Source 2

Advantages of e-commerce

• International reach. E-commerce is undoubtedly the easiest way to reach other markets and grow your business without an enormous investment. Let’s take UGG, for example, a company based in Australia, which sells winter boots. Having an online shop, Ugg are able to reach international markets and also sell their boots through the summer because the Australian summer coincides with the European and North American winter.
• 24/7 availability. Another perk, which is closely related to the first one, is that online stores are always open. Customers from every point on the planet can access an online shop and complete an order at any point of the day. This is, naturally, much more convenient and preferable. As for the retailers, the constant availability results in increased sales.
• Tailored shopping experience. The digital nature of e-commerce allows it to make use of various technologies and innovations to provide convenient, personalized and enjoyable shopping experience. Online shops now have the ability to track customer behavior and based on that data, for example, adjust the site navigation, change product prices or offer various promotions, recommend products, send timely and engaging messages. Needless to say, the result is a win-win for the store owner and the customer.
• Cost reduction. An online-based only business requires fewer employees (at least at the beginning), and thus, fewer business expenses. Cost is also reduced when there is no need to pay rent, store equipment or even inventory.
  
  Alibaba, for example, is one of the biggest e-commerce sites in the world. They take pride in the fact that they don’t have a single warehouse.
  
  Smaller operational costs allow retailers to offer more competitive prices, making e-commerce even more appealing to consumers.
• Low inflation, cheaper goods for consumers. At the time of this writing, the American economy is booming, unemployment is sinking and businesses are expanding their operation, producing more and more goods and services.
  
  The laws of economics stipulate that an accelerating economy is accompanied by rising prices and higher inflation. Yet even with the economy going full throttle, prices and wages are rising much more slowly than expected.
  
  The American Federal Reserve has an inflation target of 2%, which is optimal for keeping the economy buzzing without overheating. But inflation is routinely falling short of this target.
  
  So far, the economists have identified one main culprit for this: E-commerce. Decreased operational costs and increased competition online are some of the attributes of e-commerce which logically are keeping prices in check even with the economy in full swing.
• Niche markets development. Niche products target a specific segment of customers. They are unique, one-of-a-kind and in many cases handmade. Think of organic milk-free coconut yogurt or phone cases made from compost material. When it comes to selling niche products, e-commerce proves to be a lot more efficient and merciful than normal offline retail. Because of the reduced expenses and the opportunity to sell to a worldwide-range of customers, niche markets have a greater chance of succeeding if they’re online-based. 

Disadvantages of e-commerce

• Inability to test the products. Even though an increasing number of people shop online, many still prefer to try out the products before buying them. VR and AR technologies aim to alleviate this problem and therefore are recently seeing an increased investment.
• Lack of human interaction. While for some people avoiding the queue and the shopping malls is a benefit, those who prefer face-to-face interaction may still go to a brick-and-mortar store. But given that prices are more competitive online, it is often the case that customers will still buy the product online after trying it out in an offline store.
• Shipping time. Let’s face it. All of us prefer to have the products we’ve bought immediately. Unfortunately, with e-commerce, this is not the case and customers have to wait for their goods to arrive sometimes for weeks. However, with e-commerce becoming more competitive it is almost a norm now for online retailers to offer a one or two-day delivery.
• Privacy issues and safety concerns. Sometimes, especially when the online shop is not of a well-known retailer, customers may feel that their personal or credit card information may be exploited. Therefore it is important for online retailers to build trust by showing that they are PCI and GDPR compliant, that they use reputable payment providers and that customers have already trusted them and are satisfied with their experience.
• Dependence on IT knowledge. For most customers, a site that crashes or loads too slowly would be a deal breaker. It is therefore paramount that the store owner chooses a rock-solid system and a reliable technology partner.
• Causes job losses. According to Business Insider, e-commerce is one of the reasons why retailers are rapidly closing stores. In 2017, an estimated number of 89, 000 merchandise workers have lost their jobs. While e-commerce does not give new job opportunities to retail workers, it usually opens positions for e-commerce assistants and professionals as well as technically skilled personnel. Therefore although it is often cited in publications, this disadvantage is highly debatable.

Steps to setting up and managing your own e-commerce platform

Maybe you are a student considering starting a dropshipping business, or a maker of a niche product trying to expand your sales or an established offline retailer planning to explore the opportunities e-commerce. In any case, if you are wondering where to start and how it all works here are a few simple steps that you can follow to start an online store.

• Choose a product. If you still do not have a product, this is, naturally, the first and most important step for anyone who wishes to dive into the world of e-commerce. Whatever the chosen product is, there are four main methods of sourcing it: making, manufacturing, wholesale, and dropshipping.
• Set up a platform. You have done your product research and designed your business model carefully. Now is the time to choose an e-commerce platform. You have two general choices: a free and an open source platform like nopCommerce and Magento or a cloud platform like Shopify and BigCommerce. The former is cheaper, you have complete ownership and control of your system but will need a hosting space and a little bit of IT knowledge. The latter is a bit more expensive, you do not own the system, but do not have to deal with hosting providers and do not need IT knowledge.
• Promote your website. Promoting your website comes down to one very comprehensive and trendy skill - digital marketing. This includes content creation, social media, email marketing, Google and Facebook Ads, affiliate marketing, various strategies for customer retention, etc. Unless you are a digital marketer or are keen to learn the field, your best bet will be to delegate this to a professional.
• Measure the success of your marketing efforts. Regardless of who takes care of your marketing operation, you should be in control and measure its success. For this purpose, you will need your website to integrate with Google Analytics. Once you have GA setup you should routinely check the number of your monthly visitors, the sources and campaigns that brought them to your website, the bounce rate and time on site, the pages that they visit most and the pages that they bounce most often from, the sources and the landing pages that convert most. In this way, you will know what part of your marketing strategy is working and what can be improved.

Successful businesses that started with little to no venture capital

You're probably thinking that no matter how great your idea and business plan is you have to invest a lot of money to make it work. Not necessarily. There are thousands of companies who have started out with little to no money and have subsequently become successful. Dive in to see how they’ve made it.

Tuft and Needle have been selling and manufacturing mattresses since 2012. In the beginning, the company did not have a brick and mortar store and was only selling online.

The idea of the company was born when co-creator JT Marino and his wife overpaid for a poor-quality mattress. Marino and his colleague Daehee Park quit their engineering jobs and invested $3,000 each for the creation of an e-commerce mattress company.

By its first year, their product was the No.1 mattress on Amazon. Later, they took a $500,000 loan and opened a physical store in San Francisco. In 2016 the revenue of the company was over $100 million.

The creators of the Cards Against Humanity game used Kickstarter to fund its launch. Originally, the game could only be bought online - first on Kickstarter and then on Amazon and on the Cards Against Humanity website.

With a venture budget of $15,570, it became the No.1 game on Amazon a month after it was released in 2011 and has generated an estimated $12 million in revenue. 

RXBAR, the protein bar company, was created with no outside funding. Creators Peter Rahal and Jared Smith set up a webshop because it was easier to sell the product online than to find a physical venue for it.

Rahal and Smith invested $5,000 each and started selling the bars in 2013. Their idea was to popularize the product one bar at a time - at the beginning, the two of them would make the bars by hand. Sometimes they would even give the bars for free to coffee shops and CrossFit centers.

In 2017, Kellogg’s bought the company for $600 million.

Ipsy, an e-commerce company that sends subscribers a monthly sample of beauty products, was started with no outside capital.

Michelle Phan, the creator of Ipsy, is a beauty vlogger on YouTube and this is how she attracted most of Ipsy’s customers. With over 8 million YouTube subscribers, Phan has managed to convert many of them to members of Ipsy and create a company with an annual revenue of $120 million.

Here’s how it works: members receive a “Glam Bag” with five sample products for $10 each month. However, Ipsy does not pay anything for the products. Rather, makeup brands are happy to provide the products for free in exchange for the marketing exposure and the feedback they receive.

Conclusion

If you have read this far, you should already have a firm understanding of e-commerce, what types there are, the channels and platforms that it runs on, its history, pros and cons. I hope I have also provided you with a bit of inspiration should you decide to venture into the intricacies of online retail. And if you do please let us know in the comment section below.

Of course, there is more to e-commerce than this guide. If you wish to know more, dig deeper by exploring other articles on our blog.

In case you feel like we’ve missed something, or there was a question we did not answer, feel free to tell us, again in the comments or through our contact form here.

Launching a new e-commerce business can be a hassle. You need to do a ton of research which takes effort and time. One of the most important things you need to research is the platform you will use for your online store.

Choosing an e-commerce platform that supports multiple payment and shipping methods and offers a variety of marketing and sales tools is essential.

However, in order to find the option that works best for you, you also need to consider your business needs and objectives. For example, if you want to sell subscriptions, you need a platform that supports recurring products. Or, if you want to rent out specific products, you need to choose a platform that supports rental products.

No matter what your business needs and goals are, finding an e-commerce platform that provides all the necessary functionality can be hard.

But given that you’re here, you most likely have narrowed your choice down to two of the major e-commerce platforms out there - nopCommerce and WooCommerce.

We know that evaluating one platform’s features and capabilities can be very time-consuming. Let alone comparing two platforms. This is why we will give you a bird’s eye view of nopCommerce and WooCommerce. We will discuss their architecture, features, add-ons, pricing plans, and more so that you can define which one is better suited for your business.

So, get comfortable and let’s get started!

NopCommerce

NopCommerce is an open-source .NET Core e-commerce platform. It is suitable for businesses of any size. From small-size online stores to corporate level multi-store retailers.

Architecture & Technology

• ASP.NET CORE.  NopCommerce is built on top of the latest ASP.NET Core meaning that at its foundation lays one of the most popular, robust, highly scalable, modular and performant, open-source frameworks that is backed by the ASP.NET team at Microsoft.
• Open-source. NopCommerce is community-driven, which means that it leverages the power and work of many developers and partner companies. As such nopCommerce is actively being developed and new features and improvements are being added to it constantly.
• Extendable architecture. Themes and plugins can be easily developed without any interference with the platform’s core architecture. This means that there is an easy and structured way to extend the platform with whatever capabilities you need.
• Security. Being an ASP.NET CORE application, nopCommerce is one of the most secure e-commerce platforms out there. In the 10 years of its existence, it has seen only one security patch and no reports of security breaches whatsoever.
• RESTful API plugin that allows you to access and manage your nopCommerce website’s data (customers, products, orders, etc.) through an easy-to-use HTTP REST API. The RESTful API plugin is developed by Nop-Templates. You can download it for free by clicking here.

Built-in Features

• Multi-store support. You can create and configure as many stores as you want. All stores share one database. Thus, managing them will be a breeze. In addition, your customers will be able to log in to all of them using the same credentials which significantly improves their overall customer experience.
• Multi-vendor support. You can create a marketplace and allow other vendors to sell their products on your website.
• Single management portal with a responsive design. Easily manage your e-commerce business from your office, or on the go.
• Responsive design for the public area of your store. People browse and shop online on their phones while waiting in line at the supermarket, or having their afternoon coffee. It’s 2018 and having a mobile-friendly online store is a must.
• Multilingual support including RTL (right-to-left) support enables you to reach customers all over the world.
• SEO friendly markup, URL slugs, canonical URLs and sitemap support guarantee that Google will love your store.
• Reward points-based loyalty program helps you nurture long-lasting and valuable relationships with your customers.
• Anonymous checkout. By offering this feature, you are sure to never miss a sale because a first-time buyer is in a hurry and doesn’t have the time to register at your website, for example. Note that nopCommerce doesn’t offer one-page checkout out-of-the-box. If you want to add such feature to your store you will have to purchase a one-page checkout extension.
• Multi-currency support.
• Tax configuration with VAT support. This will come in handy if you sell your product to companies or customers who live in countries where VAT applies.
• Integration with more than 50 payment gateways among which PayPal, Square, 2Checkout, Skrill, etc.
• Additional payment options including credit card, cash on delivery, in-store pickup, and more.
• GDPR compliance.
• Google Analytics integration.
• Microsoft Azure integration. Build and run your online store directly in the Microsoft Azure cloud.
• Rental products. Store owners not only can sell products but also can rent them out.
• Recurring products. Shoppers can subscribe to a product or service for a specific period of time and pay on a weekly, monthly, or yearly basis.
• Related products. Shoppers can see products that are similar to the one they intend to purchase. This gives you the opportunity to upsell without being too intrusive.
• Wishlists. People can create a list of all the products they would like to buy from your website. When their birthday is coming up, for example, they can send their wishlist to their family and friends. This way they are sure to receive a gift they will truly love.
• Downloadable products, and more.

These are some of the more significant features nopCommerce offers out-of-the-box.

Note that since the platform is open-source, you can easily add more advanced custom features to your store. You can also fully customize the way your website looks and feels. As a result, it can perfectly match your brand identity.

Themes & Templates

Even if people don’t always judge books by their covers, they will most likely judge your store by its design. After all, who would buy from a website that looks outdated?

Lucky for you, you won’t have to worry about this. NopCommerce offers a wide variety of great looking themes.

You can find 170 themes in the nopCommerce marketplace (119 commercial and 51 free themes). Having so much choice gives you a much better opportunity to find the perfect theme for your store. You can find a theme that was built specifically for the type of products you offer - electronics, clothes, sports gear, jewelry, beauty products, toys, home decor, and so on. One that matches your brand identity and offers all the capabilities you need to successfully run your online business.

Aside from design, capabilities, and cost, there is one more thing you should consider when choosing a theme for your store - that it is compatible with your version of nopCommerce.

Note that there are 29 Nop-Templates themes in the nopCommerce marketplace. They come with a set of 13+ premium plugins. In addition, all 29 themes are responsive and compatible with nopCommerce 4.10.

However, keep in mind that even if you purchase a high-end theme, you may still need to purchase additional plugins.

The good news is that there are plenty of extensions on the nopCommerce marketplace.

Plugins

Тhere are over 1,500 plugins in the nopCommerce marketplace that are divided into 8 categories:

• Language packs
• Payment modules
• User interface & Widgets
• Shipping & Delivery
• Marketing & Sales
• Administration
• Customers
• Security

You can find a plugin for almost anything - checkout enhancements, order fulfillment, discount and promotions management, content or product management, remarketing, abandoned cart recovery, SEO, email automation tools like Storakle, and much more.

In addition, if you cannot find a plugin that meets your requirements, you can always turn to a certified nopCommerce expert. Be it a .NET developer, or a recognized nopCommerce partner, they can build a custom solution for your store.

Some of the best nopCommerce experts include Nop-Templates, DotControl, Irvine Software Company, Aperture Labs, and more.

Partners

NopCommerce partners with more than 150 of the world’s leading .NET development companies, design companies, digital agencies and hosting providers.

Whether you need a small theme tweak, a full-blown customization of your storefront, or a custom plugin, you can find a partner who will do an outstanding job.

The nopCommerce partners are divided into 3 categories:

• Solution partners - You want to redesign your website? You need to add more advanced functionalities to your store? Or, maybe you want to outsource digital marketing or project management? In this directory, you can find more than 130 certified professionals who can help you.
• Technology partners - Payment modules, tax compliance solutions, marketing tools, delivery tracking software… you name it. They can offer it.
• Official hosting partners - Not sure where you should host your nopCommerce store? Look no further than this directory and the list of hosting companies that have been approved by nopCommerce themselves. Everleap and A2 Hosting, for example, are such companies.

Pricing

You can download nopCommerce and start developing on the platform for free.

There might be additional costs in several cases:

• If you purchase a theme or a commercial extension from the nopCommerce marketplace.
• If you work with a certified nopCommerce expert on a project.
• If you host your website in Microsoft Azure.
• If you want to remove the nopCommerce copyright from your website you will have to purchase the copyright removal key.
• If you need support from the nopCommerce team you will need to purchase one of their premium support plans.

Support Plans

NopCommerce offers free forum support for all store owners, developers, and .NET enthusiasts.

However, if you need dedicated support from the nopCommerce core team, you will have to purchase one of their premium support plans.

Purchasing a support package guarantees you:

• 24 hours response time (excluding weekends and holidays)
• 5 days bug fixing warranty (excluding weekends and holidays)
• Technical advice
• Code reviews from the nopCommerce core team, and more

However, it does not mean that nopCommerce will offer you support for any themes and add-ons developed by their partners. In this case, you will have to turn to the vendor who developed the theme or the add-on.

Who is nopCommerce suitable for?

If you’re searching for an open-source .NET based e-commerce platform, nopCommerce is an extremely viable option - it sports amazing built-in features, it is fully customizable, and it is one of the most cost-efficient choices out there.

In addition, developers can use the latest ASP.NET CORE technology to create highly sophisticated e-commerce websites.

However, this does not mean that you have to be a .NET wizard in order to build your online store on nopCommerce. NopCommerce is strongly supported by its community and partners. There are hundreds of certified professionals you can work with. All of them offer installation and store set up as part of their services. So, no matter what you need and how tech-savvy you are, they have you covered!

If you want to get started immediately with nopCommerce, check out this Step-by-step guide on installing nopCommerce.

WooCommerce

Note that WooCommerce is not your typical e-commerce platform. To be exact, it is a free e-commerce plugin for Wordpress CMS.

* If you want to have more than one store, you will have to purchase WooCommerce Multistore. The price of a single network license is $199. If you need a license for more than one network, the price is $299.

** If you want to allow multiple vendors to sell their offerings through your WooCommerce store, you will need to purchase an extension. There are themes that offer multi-vendor support as well. Or, you can work with a certified developer who can add such feature to your store. In any case, there will be additional costs.

Architecture & Technology

• PHP based. WooCommerce was developed for WordPress CMS which is PHP based.
• WP REST API. WooCommerce can be seamlessly integrated with third-party systems through its API, which allows for the viewing, creation, removal or update of all WooCommerce entities like products, customers, orders, etc. Note that you must be using WooCommerce 2.6 and above and WordPress 4.4 and above.

Built-in Features

• Fully customizable storefront
• Built-in CMS features such as email templates, SEO tools, ability to add products to blog posts, and more.
• Physical and digital products support
• Advanced inventory management module enables you to easily track stock levels, hold stock when an order is canceled, hide out-of-stock items, and more. You will also get notifications for low-stock and out-of-stock products.
• Multi-currency support. You can set the currency of your store according to your geolocation.
• Fast checkout options including anonymous checkout. Note that similar to nopCommerce, WooCommerce does not offer one-page checkout out-of-the-box. Instead, you would have to buy an extension if you want to add such feature to your store.
• Tax configuration with geolocation support. The customer's geolocation can be taken into account when the tax is calculated.
• Multiple payment options including credit card, PayPal, Stripe, cash on delivery, and more.

Themes & Templates

Unlike nopCommerce, the WooCommerce themes page offers only the official Storefront theme including 14 child themes.

The child themes are specifically designed for different industries. Say, you sell office supplies - there is a child theme specifically for this. Same goes for arts & crafts supplies, organic foods, pet products, jewelry, video games, books, toys, high-end hardware, pharmaceuticals, home decor, and clothes.

If the Storefront theme is not what you are looking for, you can also purchase a WooCommerce theme for your store from ThemeForest. The WooCommerce theme category consists of more than 500 themes.

Plugins

If you’re looking for bells and whistles for your store, the WooCommerce plugin directory should be your first and last stop. It is where you can find a variety of free and commercial extensions.

The plugins are divided into 6 categories:

• Enhancements
• Marketing
• Payments
• Product type
• Shipping
• Store management

In addition, there are 21 subcategories so that you can easily find what you need. Some of the more significant categories and subcategories include:

• Product type. Besides physical and digital products, with these extensions, you can sell more complex product types such as subscriptions, bookings, and appointments, for example.
• Inventory and fulfillment. Extensions that can help you manage stock levels, orders, and returns. In addition, there are extensions that connect your store to Amazon FBA, print invoices and automatically send emails to your dropshipping partners.
• Cart and checkout features. With the extensions from this category, you can add a one-page checkout feature to your store, enable social login, and many more.
• Payments. Stripe, Square, PayPal, 2Checkout, and 8 more pages of payment gateways are available in this category.
• Social. In this category, you can find extensions that integrate your store with Facebook or Instagram.
• Email. Here you can find integrations with MailChimp and Conversio. You can also find extensions that help you streamline the process of following up with your customers and more.
• Reporting. Here you can find apps that integrate your store with Google Analytics and KissMetrics. You can also find plugins for customer tracking and segmentation and many more.

In addition, if you’re using the Storefront theme, you can purchase the official Storefront Powerpack Bundle that consists of 13 extensions such as mega menu, blog customizer, reviews feature, and more. 6 of the extensions are free. The price range of the commercial ones is from $19.00 to $59.00.

Partners

WooCommerce has listed 16 companies on their official partners page. MailChimp, PayPal, Amazon, Stripe, BlueHost, and Klarna, to name a few. Please note that these are only integration partners.

Currently, Woocommerce is not looking to add new companies to their partner network but you can still contact them and discuss a possible integration between your service and WooCommerce.

In addition to the integration partners, there are experts that provide services on top of WooCommerce. These companies provide a wide range of services like theme and extension development, SEO and digital marketing, etc. However, if you cannot find a suitable partner to work with, you can always work with a WordPress partner or contact an experienced PHP professional.

After all, WooCommerce is open-source - everything is fully customizable. Any good developer can do wonders with an access to the source code!

Pricing

Even though WooCommerce is a free plugin, additional costs are inevitable. At the very least, just like with every open-source e-commerce system including nopCommerce you will need to pay for domain registration and hosting.

There might be additional costs in several other cases as well:

• If you purchase a premium theme for your store.
• If you decide to add more advanced features to your store, you may have to contact a PHP developer or purchase a paid extension.
• If you want to optimize your marketing or SEO efforts, for example, you may need to add MonsterInsights, Yoast SEO, MailChimp, or another plugin to your website.
• If you need premium support for your store.

Support Plans

Similar to nopCommerce, WooCommerce offers free forum support. If you need premium support, you can either turn to the WooCommerce core team, or a third-party expert. Some of the more common ones include:

• WooGuru support

• WordPress hero support

• WP Helper support

• Store Guardian support

Who is WooCommerce suitable for?

Ultimately, if you already have a Wordpress website and are just now considering the possibility to sell products online, WooCommerce is the most viable option.

If you are an experienced PHP developer (or work with one), it could also be a good idea to choose WooCommerce over other PHP platforms, such as Magento and OpenCart, for example. But this is a topic for a different comparison article.

For now, let’s move on to the last section of the nopCommerce vs WooCommerce comparison - a compact table that summarizes some of the essential information we discussed above.

Conclusions

Choosing the right e-commerce platform to build your online store on is key to your success. But it is also a very complex and time-consuming task.

To make it easier for you, we have covered the basic differences and similarities between nopCommerce and WooCommerce.

To sum up, the biggest difference between nopCommerce and WooCommerce is the programming language the platforms are built on - nopCommerce is .NET based, while WooCommerce is PHP based.

Other differences include the fact that WooCommerce has built-in CMS features, whereas nopCommerce store owners will have to purchase an extension to add such features to their stores.

On the other hand, nopCommerce has multi-store and multi-vendor support out of the box, whereas WooCommerce doesn’t. If you want to add such features to your WooCommerce store, you will need to purchase an extension or a theme that supports them.

The most significant similarity between nopCommerce and WooCommerce is that both platforms are open-source and are strongly supported by their online communities. In addition, both platforms can offer you a wide variety of themes and plugins that can help you extend your website’s capabilities.

We hope you found this information helpful! Do you think we missed something? Let us know in the comments section below!

Are you planning to start an e-commerce business? Do you want to get a better sense of all the factors that can affect it (global economy, industry trends, competitors, etc.)? Do you want to define and prioritize your business objectives? Do you need to apply for a loan or an investment to jump-start your company?

If you answered “Yes” to any of these questions, you need an e-commerce business plan.

An e-commerce business plan can benefit you in numerous ways.

For one thing, it will help you define your business goals and will give you a better idea of how you can achieve them.

For another, it will help you identify potential challenges. It will also help you overcome them as they occur. In addition, it will guide your marketing and sales efforts so that you can successfully grow your business.

Last but not least, there is no way to apply for a loan or an investment without a business plan. At the very least, it will assure banks that you will be able to pay off your debt, and help investors determine how high their potential ROI (Return On Investment) will be.

So far, so good. But how do you even begin writing an e-commerce business plan? And, if you have never written one before, how do you make sure you do it right?

This is what we will tackle in this comprehensive and straightforward step-by-step guide!

A step-by-step guide to writing an outstanding e-commerce business plan

Executive summary

The executive summary can either be a separate document or a part of your business plan. Either way, it should be compelling, positive and concise because it is the first thing investors will read.

Sure, they don’t have the time to read a 50-page business plan. But they can certainly afford to read a 2 page summary of it. And if it gets their attention, chances are they will ask for your complete business plan.

Keep in mind that the point of the executive summary is to provide investors and banks with just about enough information to get them interested in your business.

This is why it is best if you write it after you have written and revised your entire business plan. This way you will have a very clear idea of what you should include in the summary.

If you need to get a better idea of what you can include, you can click here and see an example.

Company background

Similar to the executive summary, the company description should be straightforward. Generally, this is what you should include in it:

• Company name
• Ownership. What is the legal structure of the company? Is it a sole proprietorship, a partnership, etc.?
• Founders. What are the names of the company founders? What are their roles in the company (CEO, CTO, CFO, etc.)? What are their skills and expertise?
• Team. What is the background of your key employees? How can their experience help you build a successful online business?
• Business objectives. What goals do you want to achieve in 1, 2, or 5 years? How do you plan to achieve them? What are the potential challenges? How do you plan to overcome them?
• Company values. Your company values are an essential part of your company culture. They are also, in a way, the identity of your business. This is how Net-a-Porter, one of the world’s leading online fashion brands, presents its company values.

When presenting their corporate culture, they also use words like ‘professional’, ‘gracious’, ‘diversity’, ‘pioneering spirit’ and ‘can-do attitude’ which perfectly describe their global and truly fascinating brand.

If we could give you one piece of advice regarding this part, it would be to follow Net-a-Porter’s example and speak from your heart.

• Mission statement.

This is the mission statement of Puma - it is concise, it explains what drives them, what they strive for and, ultimately, why their company exists.

This is what you should aim for when writing your mission statement.

• Unique value proposition (UVP). This is probably the most important part of your company description and also of your entire business plan. The UVP is what gets investors interested in a business. It is also the reason why they decide to fund a business. Thus, your UVP should answer one question - what is the one thing that makes you better than your competitors? What do you bring to the table that nobody else does? For example, this is how Stripe, one of the leading payment providers, presents its UVP.

Sure, Stripe uses vague expressions like ‘the most powerful and flexible tools for internet commerce’, ‘unmatched functionality’, and ‘the best possible product’. But they also clearly state what is unique about them and it is their meticulously designed API which eliminates needless complexity. As a result, you can set everything up in a few minutes and scale your business much faster and more efficiently.

Ultimately, Stripe’s UVP highlights the benefits of their product and emphasizes on what makes them unique.

If you manage to write your UVP in such manner, investors will want to read more about your product, business models, and financial plan.

Product or service

This section aims to give investors a better idea of the product or service you offer - features, specifications, etc.

You can make it as detailed as you want, but, generally, there are 2 things you must include:

• A detailed but concise description of your product and its features
• What product sourcing strategy you will use and why. You have 4 options here:
  
  • You will make the product in-house
  • You will have it manufactured by a third-party company
  • You will buy wholesale and resell at a higher price
  • You will dropship the product

Once you state which product sourcing strategy you will use, you have to explain why it works for your e-commerce business.

In addition, each model presupposes some obstacles which you need to tackle in your business plan.

For example, if you make the product in-house, scaling your online business can be challenging. You can tackle this issue by streamlining the whole process from production to shipping. This includes dealing with bottlenecks (such as labor-intensive or time-consuming steps), automating mundane tasks (such as boxing and shipping), etc. You can also hire more people and continue to make the product in-house, or outsource manufacturing to a third-party company.

Working with a manufacturing company raises a ton of questions regarding product quality and production times. If you have chosen this model for your business, it is essential that you explain how you plan to deal with these issues. Finding a legit manufacturer will guarantee you won’t have to worry about product quality. However, you will still have to make sure that they will be able to meet your deadlines. Most factories will not produce your product immediately after taking your order. Thus, you will have to plan your inventory ahead of time.

If you buy wholesale and resell at a higher price you will need to explain how you will get ahead of your competitors. Why would customers buy this specific product from you and not from another merchant who sells it as well? Your competitive edge could be a lower price, complimentary products (such as accessories), free delivery, next-day delivery, worldwide shipping, etc.

Last but not least, if you have chosen dropshipping, you will need to explain how you will deal with customer returns and exchanges (one of the major obstacles the model presupposes). You can also explain how you plan to measure the suppliers’ performance. One way to do this is by conducting customer satisfaction surveys related to product quality, delivery times, etc.

Target market

This section aims to give investors a better idea of your target market and the viability of your product idea.

Generally, this is what they want to know:

• What is the potential market size for your product?
• What are the current market trends? Which current trends can you capitalize on?
• Which customer segment (or segments) will you target? In other words, who is your ideal buyer (age, location, income, interests, etc.)?
• Why did you choose to target this particular segment?
• Why would people keep buying your products in the future?

You should be very specific when you answer these questions - use hard numbers, include graphs, cite credible sources, etc.

Competitors

Investors will want to know how many competitors you have and how you plan to get ahead of them.

To be able to answer this question, you should do a competitor analysis, i.e. research all of your current and potential competitors in order to get a better understanding of their strengths and weaknesses.

Knowing what your competitors do right and, more importantly, what they do wrong, can be extremely beneficial. One way to get this information is to read the reviews customers have left on their websites and pay extra attention to the bad ones.

For example, if you realize that people are complaining about the customer service your competitors offer, you can make sure you deliver the best customer service possible - phone, email, social media, etc. You can even add a live chat to your website so that customers can reach you 24/7. Even if you cannot afford to offer them 24/7 support just yet, you could set up automatic responses that assure them you will get back to them as soon as possible.

Or, if you realize that people are complaining about unexpected delivery fees, you can make sure you communicate all fees upfront - you can use popup windows or include the information in the product descriptions.

Ultimately, each competitor’s weakness could be your USP (Unique Selling Point).

Highlighting your USPs is what you should focus on in this section. However, you should also present your competitor analysis.

In general, this is what you should include:

• A list of all your direct and indirect competitors.
• A profile of your biggest competitor and their unique selling points.
• Your USPs. Make sure you do not differentiate yourself based simply on price. Instead, take into account a variety of factors - features, quality, competitors’ weaknesses, etc. Be very specific. Avoid vague expressions such as ‘higher quality’, ‘cutting-edge technology’, ‘unique features’, etc. These might be great for promotional banners but when it comes to business plans, being ambiguous is not the way to stand out.

So far, so good. You’ve proven you have a viable product idea, a perfect customer segment to target, and a competitive edge. The next thing investors will want to know is how you will sell your product.

Marketing strategy

A marketing strategy can make or break a business (especially a startup). Thus, you should prove investors you know what you’re doing.

To do this, you need to answer a few questions, including:

• How will you market your products?
• What technology will you use?
• How will you measure your success?

Let’s take a closer look into each of these questions.

Question 1: How will you market your products?

• Will you do SEO to drive organic traffic to your website?
• Will you employ content strategies?
• Will you use paid ads?
• Will you advertise on social media?
• Will you do influencer marketing?
• Will you run social media contests or giveaways?
• Will you send promotional emails and newsletters?
• How will you build your email list without infringing GDPR if you sell to European customers?

Note that this list is far from being exhaustive. Depending on the specifics of your business and product niche, you might have to include different, or more specific information.

However, there is one guideline you can always follow - try to maintain the balance between paid and organic marketing because this is key to a successful marketing strategy.

Question 2: What technology will you use?

• What tools will you use for SEO? You can break this question down to more specific questions, such as:
  • What tools will you use for link building (BuzzStream, MozBar, etc.)?
  • What tools will you use for backlink analysis (Ahrefs, Majestic SEO, etc.)?
  • What keyword research tools will you use (Google Keyword Planner, Answer the public, LongTailPro, etc.)?
  • What technical SEO tools will you use (Yoast SEO, SEMrush, etc.)?
  • What content optimization tools will you use (BuzzSumo, SEOptimizer, etc.)?
  • What rank tracking tools will you use (AuthorityLabs, RankRanger, SEO rank monitor, etc.)?
• What tools will you use for paid ads? Will you use the Google Marketing Platform and the Facebook Business Manager? How will you integrate these platforms with your store? Will you use Google Ads, or MailChimp Facebook Ads, for example, to seamlessly manage your ads?
• How will you design your ads? Will you use Canva or Photoshop, or maybe employ the services of a professional designer?
• What email marketing tools will you use (MailChimp, Storakle, etc.) and why? Since email is no longer the king of marketing communication, will you use tools that employ Facebook Messenger or SMS, for example? Have you considered using a chatbot, or adding a live chat to your website?
• Which analytics tools will you use to measure the overall success of your marketing activities (Google Analytics, Kissmetrics, etc.)?

Question 3: How will you measure your success?

Or, which key performance indicators (KPIs) will you monitor?

Some common KPIs include conversion rate, cart abandonment rate, bounce rate, churn rate, customer lifetime value, etc.

Ultimately, your goal is not to monitor countless KPIs but rather the ones that are relevant to your business. To define which they are, you need to consider your business objectives.

In other words, each KPI you monitor should be clearly connected to a specific business goal. For example, if you want to increase your sales with X% by the end of the year, you can say your goal is to lower your cart abandonment rate with Y% and increase your conversion rate with Z%.

Financial plan

In this section, you need to present a sample financial plan, a projected cash flow chart, and a break-even analysis (if needed).

Financial plan

This is an example of what you can include in your financial plan.

You can make your financial plan as detailed as you want. For example, instead of simply giving an estimate of how much all utilities will cost, you can specify how much you will spend on heating or phone bills.

What information you choose to include in your financial plan is entirely up to you. However, it is essential that you conclude it with a projected profit and loss (P&L) statement.

Cash-flow chart

Source: calxa

A cash flow chart (or graph) shows investors whether your projected cash flow is positive or negative.

A positive cash flow means that the money you spend is less than the money you earn. A negative cash flow means that the money you spend is more than the money you earn.

Having a negative cash flow is not necessarily a bad thing. Many companies, especially startups which heavily reinvest in their business, operate at a loss for years. But if your cash flow is negative you will have to say when you expect to break even and start marking a profit.

In order to answer this question, you will need to make a break-even analysis.

Break-even analysis

A break-even analysis helps you define how much revenue you need to generate (on a monthly or yearly basis) in order to cover the costs (fixed and variable) of running your e-commerce business. This is known as a break-even point.

When presenting your break-even analysis, you need to indicate when you expect to reach the break-even point. For example: ‘The company needs to generate $20.500 monthly revenue (or $300.000 yearly revenue) in order to reach the break-even point. The company is expected to reach the break-even point by month 8.’

It is essential that you use hard numbers backed up by a solid research, as well as a break-even diagram. This is an example of how a typical break-even diagram looks:

Source: tutor2u

After you’ve done this, you can move on to the last section of your business plan - the funding request.

Funding request

The funding request should be extremely straightforward. You simply need to answer two questions:

• How much capital do you need to start your business, achieve your business goals and build an established e-commerce business?
• How will you use the money that has been invested in your business?

Once you’ve written your funding request, your business plan will be complete.

It might seem overwhelming, but writing an e-commerce business plan is not rocket science. In fact, if you focus on answering one question at a time, the writing process can become a breeze.

To make things even easier for you, we have prepared a list of best practices you can follow.

Best practices for writing an e-commerce business plan

• Use a formal writing style. Business plans are formal documents. Therefore, using a formal writing style is a must.
• Be specific and go into details. Avoid ambiguous or vague terms and expressions. Cite credible sources and use hard numbers when it comes to percentages, money, time frames, etc.
• Keep it short and to the point. Omit anything unnecessary. The more concise your business plan is, the better.
• Put yourself in the readers’ shoes. If you were an investor who is considering the possibility to fund a business, what questions would you seek answers to?
• Use visuals. Include as many graphs, charts, or tables, as necessary. However, don’t overdo it. Keep the formatting of your business plan simple and clear.
• Edit. Pay extra attention to details - make sure that every statement, graph, and number is correct.
• Get a second opinion. Send your business plan to at least one more person and ask them what they think. It doesn’t matter if you send it to a family member or a friend.  What matters is that you trust them and that they have the expertise to give you valuable feedback.
• Proofread. Impeccable grammar is essential to formal documents. Therefore, proofreading your business plan before you send it to potential investors is a must.

Conclusions

Aside from helping you get funding, an e-commerce business plan can benefit you in numerous ways - from defining your business objectives to finding the most effective ways to overcome potential challenges.

A well-written e-commerce business plan consists of 8 sections:

• Executive summary - a concise overview of your business plan.
• Company background - company name, ownership, team, values, mission, UVP, and business objectives.
• Product or service - a description of your product, its features, and the product sourcing strategy you will use.
• Target market - market analysis and a profile of your ideal buyer.
• Competitors - a competitor analysis (number of competitors, biggest competitor, and their advantages), and a list of your USPs.
• Marketing strategy - marketing strategies, marketing tools, and the KPIs you will measure.
• Financial plan - a sample financial plan, a projected cash-flow chart, and a break-even analysis.
• Funding request

Sure, writing an e-commerce business plan is a time-consuming task. But the effort and time you invest in it is going to pay off greatly later on.

We hope this guide will help you write an outstanding business plan, one that will help you get funding, achieve your business goals and grow your business.

If you have any questions or want to share your experience with writing a business plan, feel free to leave a comment in the comments section below!

This article is part of a series of blog posts dedicated to the best .NET e-commerce platforms out there: nopCommerce, Virto Commerce, DNN, Umbraco, Kentico, Sitecore, and Sitefinity.

Over the next few weeks, we will publish a post for each of these platforms in which we will discuss the platform’s background, architecture, features, marketplace, ecosystem, and pricing.

First in line is nopCommerce.

NopCommerce is a highly scalable open-source ASP.NET Core e-commerce platform. Developers have full control over the front-end markup and the back-end features. Thus, they can create highly sophisticated e-commerce websites, themes, add-ons, etc.

NopCommerce History

NopCommerce was launched in 2008 in Yaroslavl, Russia by Andrei Mazulnitsyn - a .NET developer and an online store owner.

11 years later, nopCommerce has been installed thousands of times and is strongly supported by its community and partner companies, which together with the nopCommerce core team, constantly extend the platform’s capabilities.

NopCommerce Architecture

• Based on ASP.NET Core. At the foundation of nopCommerce lies one of the most popular and robust open-source frameworks which is backed by the ASP.NET team at Microsoft.
• Open-source. NopCommerce is community-driven. It is actively being developed and new features and improvements are added to it constantly.
• Extendable architecture. Developers can develop custom themes and plugins without interfering with the platform’s core architecture.
• RESTful API developed by Nop-Templates.

NopCommerce Features

NopCommerce sports a myriad of built-in e-commerce features:

• Multi-store. You can have as many stores as you want. You manage all stores from a single admin panel. In addition, since all stores share a single database, you can easily share data between them.
• Multi-vendor. You can create a marketplace and allow other merchants to sell their products on your website.
• Dropshipping. You can assign each product in your store to a specific vendor. When a customer orders the product, the vendor will receive an email and ship the order on your behalf. Thus, you won’t have to worry about logistics, inventory turnover, or storage space.
• ACL (access control list). You can control the permissions assigned to each product, category, vendor, etc.
• Responsive web design of the administration panel and the storefront.
• Multilingual support provided by 300+ language packs.
  
• RTL support for languages that are written and read from right to left such as Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, etc.
• SEO. XML and HTML sitemap support, Twitter and Open Graph (Facebook) META tags support, breadcrumbs support, URL canonicalization, SEO-friendly URLs, etc.
• CMS support. You can create a blog, a forum, custom pages, etc.

The nopCommerce blog offers only basic functionality, enough to get you started with your content writing. However, if you need more power when managing your content you can purchase a rich blog plugin.

The rich blog plugin allows you to organize your blogs into categories, add a featured image to each post, feature selected blog posts on your homepage, have a blog search enabled, add social sharing buttons to each blog post, and more.

• Product attributes. SKU (a unique stock keeping unit), size, weight, color, price, etc.
• Rental products. You can enable customers to rent products.
• Recurring products. You can enable customers to subscribe to products.
• Downloadable products. You can enable customers to download digital offerings (i.e. digital products or services) such as e-books, online courses, music or software.
• Reward points program. Your customers can gather reward points by spending money on your website. For example, if a customer spends $100 on one order, they get 1 point each worth $1. When the same customer places another order they can use the point and $1 will be subtracted from their order total.
• Discounts, coupons, and gift cards support.
• Multi-currency support.
• Tax configuration with EU VAT support.
• Multiple payment methods. NopCommerce integrates with more than 50 payment methods and gateways.
• Anonymous/Guest checkout. You can enable customers to complete their orders without having to log in to your website.

NopCommerce doesn’t offer one-page checkout out-of-the-box. If you want to add such a feature to your store, you can purchase a one-page-checkout plugin.

• Multiple shipping methods. You can define custom shipping methods or work with major shipping carriers such as FedEx, or UPS. You can also enable in-store pickup and more.
• GDPR compliance.

These are some of the more significant built-in e-commerce features nopCommerce offers.

If you need to add more advanced features to your e-commerce website, you can purchase a plugin from the nopCommerce marketplace.

If you cannot find what you need in the marketplace, you can easily add a custom feature to your website. Since nopCommerce is open source, all you will need is access to the source code. If you are not a .NET developer yourself, you can work with a nopCommerce expert - either a certified developer or a partner.

NopCommerce Themes

There are 170 themes in the nopCommerce marketplace - 51 free themes and 119 commercial themes with a price range from $13.68 to $249.

51 of all themes are compatible with the latest version of nopCommerce - nopCommerce 4.10. 11 of these themes are free. The other 40 are commercial with a price range from $9.99 to $249.

All themes sport a variety of features and capabilities. More expensive themes normally offer more functionalities.

For example, all 29 themes developed by Nop-Templates come with a set of 10+ plugins. By purchasing one of these themes, you receive advanced functionalities without having to pay extra for them.

Next, we will take a closer look at the types of extensions you can find in the nopCommerce marketplace.

NopCommerce Plugins

There are 1800+ plugins in the nopCommerce marketplace. They are divided into 8 categories: language packs, payment modules, user interface & widgets, shipping & delivery, marketing & sales, administration, customers, and security.

In addition, there are 24 subcategories which enables you to find the extension you need in no time.

Let’s say you are noticing high cart-abandonment rate on your site. All you need to do is filter all plugins that fall into the ‘Remarketing & abandoned carts’ subcategory and pick the one that best suits your needs.

Moreover, you can filter the plugins based on the version of nopCommerce they are compatible with, their rating, price, and more.

NopCommerce Partners & Community

NopCommerce sports an extremely active community. The nopCommerce forum bears testimony to this - dozens of new posts appear every day and there are hundreds of active discussions.

The forum is the place where .NET developers, digital agencies, marketers and store owners ask for advice and gather to discuss future collaborations, updates, bugs, and more.

Note that there are 217 certified nopCommerce developers who contribute to the nopCommerce community on a daily basis.

Asides from the community, nopCommerce is strongly supported by its 164 partners who are classified as:

• Solution partners - Currently, nopCommerce has 133 solution partners divided into 3 subcategories: gold, silver, and registered partners. These companies provide services such as nopCommerce development and digital marketing. You can see the number of websites, themes, and plugins each partner has developed, the number of certified developers in the company, as well as the years of partnership with nopCommerce.
• Technology partners - Currently, nopCommerce has 21 technology partners whose software helps store owners handle logistics, payments, and security.
  Square, for example, the well-known payment provider, integrates with nopCommerce and is a high profile technology partner. Other such partners are MailChimp and FedEx.
• Official hosting partners - these include companies like Everleap, A2 Hosting, PeoplesHost, and more.

NopCommerce Pricing

NopCommerce is completely free. Additional costs may appear in several cases:

• If you need to add a feature to your website that doesn’t come out-of-the-box. In this case, you will either have to purchase an extension from the nopCommerce marketplace or work with a certified nopCommerce expert. Unless, of course, you can build and implement the feature yourself.
• If you want to remove the ‘Powered by nopCommerce’ link from your website. In this case, you will have to pay $250 for the copyright removal key. You can also buy this key at half price from a solution partner like Nop-Templates.
• If you want premium support from the nopCommerce core team. In this case, you will have to purchase a support plan.
  

By purchasing a support plan, you are guaranteed a 24 hours response time and 5 days bug fixing warranty (excluding weekends and holidays).

However, you are not guaranteed support for any themes or plugins developed by third-parties. In this case, you will have to turn to the company that developed the theme or the plugin.

Wrap-up

We hope this article helped you get a better idea of what nopCommerce can offer. If you have any questions, drop us a line in the comments section below.

Stay tuned for our article on Virto Commerce - the next blog post of the series dedicated to the best .NET e-commerce platforms.

This article is part of a series of blog posts dedicated to the best .NET e-commerce platforms out there: nopCommerce, Virto Commerce, DNN, Umbraco, Kentico, Sitecore, and Sitefinity.

So far, we have discussed nopCommerce and what it can offer in terms of features, themes, and plugins. We also discussed the platform’s architecture, ecosystem, and support plans. Click here to read the whole article.

In this blog post we will discuss Virto Commerce.

Virto Commerce History

Virto Commerce was developed by a team of distributed developers most of whom have previously worked on the development of the MediaChase E-commerce Framework (ECF) - an online tool for e-commerce solution development that is currently known as Episerver Commerce (it was acquired by Episerver in March 2012).

Note that the development of ECF started way back in 1997. So, by 2013 which is when the first version of Virto Commerce was released, the team that developed the platform, had 16 years of experience in developing e-commerce solutions.

Virto Commerce Architecture

• Modular enterprise .NET e-commerce platform architecture.
• Virto Commerce is built on top of previous version of the .NET platform, namely .NET 4.6.
• Virto Commerce Manager is at the core of Virto Commerce and provides administration and management tools.
• Virto Commerce core functionality can be extended with modules and capabilities.
• Virto Commerce can be integrated with back-end ERP systems and front-end authentication solutions.

Virto Commerce Features

• Multi-store support.
• Multi tenant/vendor support. You can control vendor permissions, customize each vendor’s storefront, etc.
• Product Information Management (PIM). You can manage digital, physical and subscription-based products. You can also integrate your store with third-party PIM solutions.
• Advanced Catalog Management. You can manage complex B2B and B2C product lists, multi store catalogs, no-database catalogs, virtual catalogs, and more.
• Machine learning based product recommendations.
• Promotions engine. You can create promotional banners, products promotions, shipping promotions, marketing campaigns, etc. You can also offer discounts, coupons, and more.
• Content Management System (CMS). Simple CMS features come out-of-the-box. You can easily create blog posts, banners and landing pages, for example. However, if you need more flexibility, you can integrate your store with leading content management systems like WordPress, Orchard CMS, and Umbraco.
• Responsive pricing engine. You can personalize prices based on audience, purchase history, location, and more. Tier pricing and custom currencies (such as bitcoin) are also supported.
• Distributed order management software. You can integrate your store with IMS, ERP and leading accounting systems. Thus, you can easily track and manage orders (including split and recurring orders) and order statuses. You can also sync all data to inventory logs, process invoices and payments, and more.
• Multi-step checkout.

Note: Anonymous checkout and one-step checkout are not available out-of-the-box.

If you want to enable anonymous checkout, you can download a Shopping Cart Module from the Virto Commerce Marketplace.

If you want to add a one-page checkout feature to your online store, you will need a certified .NET developer.

Virto Commerce Themes

There are 5 themes listed in the Virto Commerce Marketplace.

Currently, only two 2 of the 5 themes are available - Default theme& Material theme. The other three themes are still in development. All 5 themes are free and developed by Virto Commerce.

Compared to NopCommerce, Virto Commerce obviously offers significantly smaller number of themes. In addition, none of the themes that Virto Commerce offers sport advanced functionalities.

Virto Commerce Plugins

There are 43 extensions in the Virto Commerce marketplace: payment gateways and modules related to content management, customer management, indexed search API, inventory, shopping cart, pricing, and more.

You can also find integrations with third-party software such as Google Analytics, MailChimp, Marketo, etc.

The extensions are not organized into categories and subcategories. Therefore, you will not be able to filter them, i.e. you will need to go through all plugins in order to find the one you need.

Aside from the ‘Themes’ and ‘Extensions’ categories, the Virto Commerce marketplace has a ‘Solutions’ category as well. It consists of 3 products: a collection of sample e-commerce websites, a corporate rewards program, and a dynamic product configuration and pricing engine.

Virto Commerce Partners & Community

Virto Commerce have listed only 5 official partners on their website.

The company doesn't have a forum. In addition, they haven’t been very active on social media - at the time of this writing, their last Facebook post was published on February 28, 2018 and their last tweet is from May 8th, 2018.

However, if you need help, you can check their knowledge base and access their latest documentation.

Virto Commerce Pricing

Virto Commerce has a quote-based pricing. There are 3 availabe editions of the platform:

• Community edition
• Microsoft cloud edition
• Enterprise edition

Wrap-up:

We hope this blog post helped you get a better idea of what Virto Commerce can offer you.

Stay tuned for the next article from the series of blog posts dedicated to the best .NET e-commerce platforms - DNN.

NopCommerce is one of the leading ASP.NET e-commerce platforms. It is open-source, sports a myriad of built-in features, has an active online community and is strongly supported by its partners.

One of the major things that set nopCommerce apart from all other ASP.NET based e-commerce platforms is its rich and well-structured marketplace that consists of more than 1,500 extensions and more than 170 themes.

Having such a wide choice of plugins and themes enables you to effortlessly extend your website’s functionalities and customize its look in a way that perfectly matches your brand identity.

But before you can enjoy the benefits of the available nopCommerce themes and plugins, you need to install them.

In this blog post, we will give you a step-by-step guide to installing a nopCommerce theme. We will discuss two installation scenarios - installing a theme on nopCommerce 4.00 and above, and installing a theme on nopCommerce 3.90 and below.

The process of installing a theme on nopCommerce version 4.00 and above is simpler because themes can be uploaded directly from the administration panel.

Installing a theme on nopCommerce 4.00 and above

1   Go to the nopCommerce marketplace.

You can also browse the nopCommerce marketplace directly from the admin panel of nopCommerce. To do this, go to ‘Administration’ → ‘Configuration’ → ‘Plugins’ → ‘All plugins and themes’.

2   Click on the ‘Templates & Themes’ category.

3   Find the theme you want to purchase. Click on it. Click on the ‘Get Extension’ button on the right. You will be redirected to the website of the vendor who developed the theme.

Below, we will describe the process of installing a Nop-Templates theme on nopCommerce.

1   Unblock the zip. file. To do this, you need to:

• Right click on the zip. file
• Click on ‘Properties’
• Mark the ‘Unblock’ checkbox
• Apply the changes and click on the ‘OK’ button

2   Go to the administration panel of your nopCommerce store.

3   Click on ‘Configuration’ → ‘Plugins’.

4   Click on the ‘Upload plugin or theme’ button.

5   Click on the ‘Choose a file’ button.

6   Choose the theme package you’ve downloaded.

7   Click on the ‘Upload plugin or theme’ button (check the screenshot in step 5 for a reference).

8   Once your package is uploaded, go to ‘Your plugins’ page.

9   Install the Seven Spikes Core plugin. Make sure that this plugin is installed first.

10   Next, install the rest of the Nop-Templates plugins that the theme package contains.

Once you’ve installed all plugins, a Nop-Templates menu item will appear in your administration side panel. You can configure your theme and plugins from there.

If you’re using nopCommerce 4.0 and above, and are hosting your website on Microsoft Azure, the ‘Upload plugin or theme’ functionality won’t work. In this case you will have to install all plugins from the theme package manually as described in the ‘Installing a theme on nopCommerce 3.90 and below’ section.

Installing a theme on nopCommerce 3.90 and below

1   Download your theme package (the steps are described in ‘Installing a theme on nopCommerce 4.00 and above’).

2   Unblock the theme package zip. file (check step 1 of ‘Installing a theme on nopCommerce 4.00 and above’).

3   Extract the theme package zip. file on your computer.

4   The files will be extracted in 4 folders: ~/Docs, ~/Plugins, ~/Theme Upgrade, and ~/Themes.

You will need two of these folders - ~/Plugins, and ~/Themes, - to install your new nopCommerce theme.

5   Open the extracted files directory. Open the ~/Plugins folder. Copy its content and paste it to the ~/Plugins folder in your nopCommerce application root directory.

6   Open the extracted files directory. Open the ~/Themes folder. Copy its content and paste it to the ~/Themes folder in your nopCommerce application root directory.

7   Go to the administration panel of your nopCommerce website. Click on ‘Configuration’ → ‘Plugins’ → ‘Local Plugins’.

8   Click on the ‘Reload list of plugins’ button.

9   Install the Seven Spikes Core plugin first.

10   Install all other Nop-Templates plugins.

Once you’ve installed all the plugins from the theme package, a Nop-Templates menu item will appear in your administration side panel. You can configure your theme and plugins from there.

Wrap-up

If you’re using nopCommerce 4.00 and above, you will be able to upload and install your new nopCommerce theme directly from the administration panel of your nopCommerce store.

If you’re using nopCommerce 3.90 and below, you will need to extract the theme package on your computer first, copy the files from the ~/Themes and ~/Plugins directories and paste them to your nopCommerce application root directory.

In both cases the installation process is easy and shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes.

We hope this article was helpful! Feel free to ask us a question or share your experience with installing a nopCommerce theme in the comments section below!

Still haven't installed nopCommerce? Check out our detailed step-by-step guide to installing nopCommerce.

This article is part of a series of blog posts dedicated to the best .NET e-commerce platforms - nopCommerce, Virto Commerce, DNN, Umbraco, Kentico, Sitecore, and Sitefinity.

So far, we have discussed two of the platforms mentioned above - nopCommerce and Virto Commerce.

Next in line is DNN.

DNN is an open-source ASP.NET Web Forms content management system (CMS) and а web application framework.

You can create e-commerce systems, intranets, public websites, or custom web applications on top of DNN.

DNN History

The story of DNN begins in 2001 when Microsoft created a reference application called IBuySpy Portal. The purpose of the application was to showcase the ASP.NET software development framework.

On Christmas Eve 2002 the second version of IBuySpy Portal was released and was branded as IBuySpy Workshop.

In March 2003, the IBuySpy Workshop was rebranded as DotNetNuke.

In 2006 the DotNetNuke Corporation was formed.

In 2008 the company received financing from Sierra Ventures and August Capital. As a result, the DotNetNuke Professional Edition was released in February 2009.

2009 was a very successful year for DotNetNuke - aside from releasing the Professional Edition, the company announced the acquisition of a marketplace (called Snowcovered), and launched a partnership program. They started handpicking partner companies that would provide products, services, and solutions for DotNetNuke. The partners would also provide support for development companies, web design companies, and individuals who use the framework.

In addition, in October 2009, DotNetNuke was recognized as the leading open-source CMS based on ASP.NET (Open Source CMS Market Share Report 2009).

In 2013 DotNetNuke was replaced by DNN and the company became known as the DNN Corporation.

In 2017 ESW Capital acquired the DNN Corporation.

DNN Architecture

DNN is based on the legacy ASP.NET Webforms. The DNN team has been working frantically for the past three years to make it possible for the system to evolve to the latest .NET platforms.

The UI has been changed to be predominantly REST-API and javascript based. There is still roughly 20% Webforms left in it, so the transition is not yet complete. Many of the core components have already moved to .NET Core but many still remain to be ported because they still rely on Webforms objects like Server and Request.

DNN Features

There are 4 DNN products:

1. DNN platform - an open-source development framework
2. Evoq Basic - a content management tool set with limited capabilities
3. Evoq Content - a complete content management tool set
4. Evoq Engage - a complete community management tool set

Only the DNN platform is free. The other 3 DNN editions are distributed under a commercial licence and offer more advanced CMS features (a drag-and-drop content builder, SEO tools, content analytics, etc.), integrations with third-party systems (Google Analytics, Microsoft Azure, DropBox, etc.), community management features, better performance, and more.

Compare the 4 DNN editions.

DNN Themes

The DNN theme category contains 464 products - DNN themes, and DNN theme collections.

You can find 6 free themes and hundreds of commercial themes with a price range from $19.00 to $269.

There are several theme collections with a price range from $149 to $399.99, and several DNN skins with a price range from $6 to $2.400.

When browsing through the theme category, you can read an overview of each theme’s specifications, as well as see the theme’s price, number of reviews, and last update.

You can also filter the products by subcategory (color, genre, site type, theme packs, etc.), or by tag (CSS, iPhone, mobile, tablet, etc.). This way you can easily find the theme that best suits your store.

If you don’t have the time to do a detailed research on DNN themes, you can see the top DNN themes here.

DNN Plugins

The DNN marketplace contains 595 plugins.

162 of them are build to enhance the capabilities of your e-commerce website. You can find them in the ‘E-commerce’ category.

The e-commerce category consists of 25 subcategories. Some of the more significant subcategories include checkout, content management, forms management, marketing & advertising, email, SEO, and more.

You can purchase a product grid module, enable dynamic registration, ensure secure credit card transactions, integrate your online store with PayPal or Stripe, manage online orders in Zendesk, and much more.

Wondering which are the best DNN plugins out there? See a list

Note that if you don’t find the plugin you need on the DNN marketplace, you can always build a custom plugin for your store. You can either do this in-house or outsource it to a third-party (such as a DNN partner or a .NET developer, for example).

DNN Partners & Community

DNN has a thriving community that consists of more than 1 million members - developers, designers, marketers, store owners, etc.

They gather to discuss technology, design, the DNN framework and issues they are facing on the DNN forum.

The DNN community is active - there are more than 100K posts on the DNN forum and new posts appear every day.

In addition, at the time of this writing, there are 7821 questions in the DNN Questions Directory and 6767 of them have been answered.

Aside from its online community, DNN is supported by its partners as well.

The DNN partner directory consists of 37 partner companies. They are classified as:

• Implementation partners - companies that build websites or applications on top of DNN
• Hosting partners - companies that specialize in DNN hosting
• ISV (Independent Software Vendors) partners - companies that build DNN extensions (themes, plugins, language packs, etc.)
• Training partners - companies that specialize in providing training for the DNN platform. There are two types of training: online video training and instructor-led training.

There are 3 partner levels - registered, standard, and advanced. Currently DNN has 19 registered partners, 5 standard partners, and 13 advanced partners.

Note that 19 of all 37 partners have listed e-commerce as one of their competencies.

When browsing through the partner directory, you can read a short description of each partner company, see the number of websites each partner has developed, as well as the partner’s level.

In addition, you can filter the partners based on their location and partner level.

If you don’t have the time to research DNN partners and the services they offer, you can use Partner Match and let DNN themselves identify which partner company is best suited to meet your needs.

DNN Pricing

You can download the DNN platform for free. However, depending on your business objectives, you may need to purchase one of its paid editions:

• Evoq Basic (distributed under an MIT license)
• Evoq Content (distributed under a commercial proprietary licence)
• Evoq Engage (distributed under a commercial proprietary licence)

You will need to contact the DNN sales team for more information on pricing. You can do this by clicking on one of the ‘Contact sales’ or ‘Request pricing’ buttons on this page.

Wrap-up:

We hope this article helped you get a better idea of what DNN can offer!

Stay tuned for our article on Umbraco - the next blog post of the series dedicated to the best .NET e-commerce platforms.

This article is part of a blog series dedicated to the best .NET e-commerce platforms out there - nopCommerce, Virto Commerce, DNN, Umbraco, Kentico, Sitecore, and Sitefinity.

So far, we have discussed nopCommerce, Virto Commerce, and DNN. We discussed each platform's architecture, features, capabilities, marketplace, ecosystem, and pricing.

In this blog post, we will talk about Umbraco.

Umbraco is not a .NET e-commеrce platform but rather an open-source CMS (content management system) based on ASP.NET.

Unlike other CMS platforms like Kentico, Sitecore, and Sitefinity, Umbraco doesn’t offer e-commerce features out-of-the-box.

Thus, if you want to run an e-commerce website on Umbraco, you will need to find a third-party e-commerce solution that integrates with Umbraco. Such solutions are Ucommerce and Merchello, for example.

But before we dive into the different features, let’s take a closer look into the history of Umbraco.

Umbraco History

The first prototype of Umbraco was built in 1999 by founder and CEO Niels Hartvig.

4 years later, in 2003, the first version of Umbraco was released.

In February 2005 the open-source version of the platform, Umbraco 2.0, was released. The same year the first annual Umbraco conference (Codegarden) took place in Copenhagen, Denmark.

In 2007 the Umbraco PRO version was released and in 2008 Umbraco launched its training program.

In 2009 Umbraco Courier 1.0 (a tool that enables you to move digital assets between Umbraco environments) and Umbraco Contour (a tool that enables you to build and design forms in Umbraco) were released. The same year Umbraco was recognized as one of the leading open-source CMS systems based on ASP.NET (by CMS Wire) and was listed as one of the top 10 CMS systems (by Version 2, a Danish magazine).

One year later, in 2010 Umbraco was refactored and its performance was significantly improved.
In January 2012 a rewrite of the framework (Version 5) was published. It was built using ASP.NET MVC. However, 5 months later, Version 5 was dropped due to performance problems. The next version of Umbraco, Version 6, was released in the beginning of 2013. It provided additional support for MVC4.

In November 2013, Umbraco released Version 7. The last stable version of Umbraco, Umbraco 7.10.2, was released in April 2018.

Note: If you want to know more about Umbraco’s background, you can check their ‘About us’ page.

Umbraco Architecture

• Built upon Microsoft’s .NET Framework, using ASP.NET MVC 4.5
• Supports Razor and XSLT view engines
• Umbraco API

Umbraco Features

Ucommerce Accelerator Storefront for Umbraco (Ucommerce for Umbraco)

Ucommerce for Umbraco can run on Umbraco CMS (an open-source free version of Umbraco) and Umbraco Cloud (a cloud version of Umbraco that enables you to host your website in Microsoft Azure).

Ucommerce was built specifically for Umbraco. Thus, it is the most sophisticated e-commerce solution for Umbraco.

Some of the more significant e-commerce features Ucommerce for Umbraco offers include:

• Multi-store support
• Multilingual support
• Multi-currency support
• Single management platform
• Multiple catalogs support
• Built-in template system for product presentations. You can easily present your products in different and engaging ways by using the templates.
• Fully customizable checkout. You can define your own checkout steps.
• CMS features. You can create custom landing pages, product pages, blog posts, and more. You can also easily manage and organize your content and digital assets.
• A framework-first structure and an open API enable you to integrate your e-commerce website with third-party ERP’s, CRM’s, PIM’s, marketing tools, etc.
• Ucommerce has its own Integration Engine called Uconnector. Uconnector enables you to exchange data between Ucommerce and third-party systems (such as Umbraco) much faster and extremely easy.

Merchello for Umbraco

Merchello is an open-source e-commerce package for Umbraco.

Some of the more significant features Merchello offers out-of-the-box include:

• Order and sales management. You can manage multiple shipments per order, capture payments, work with different suppliers, etc.
• Customer management. You can view each customer’s data (phone number, billing & shipping address, etc.), purchase history (number of orders, abandoned products, etc.), wishlist, and more. You can also update and organise all customer information.
• Multilingual support
• Multi-currency support
• SEO. Fully customizable URLs ensure that Google will love your website.
• Built-in marketing features. You can easily create rule-based discounts and coupons, create promotional campaigns, configure constraints associated with each campaign, and more.
• Analytics. You can automatically generate and view sales reports, cart abandonment reports, and more. Custom reports can also be created.

If you’re just starting out, you can use FastTrack - the Merchello Starter Kit that enables you to configure your e-commerce website in a few clicks.

Umbraco Themes

Umbraco doesn’t offer themes. Instead, you will have to work with a third-party expert that develops themes for Umbraco. Some of the more popular options include uSkinned and BindTuning.

Uskinned, for example, offers 9 responsive Umbraco themes and 1 starter kit. If you want to get a better idea of the themes and the features they sport, click here.

BindTuning offers 21 commercial themes. Click here to see their cost (all themes cost $49), number of downloads, a preview, and more.

Ultimately, there isn’t a wide variety of e-commerce themes for Umbraco. However, since the platform is open-source, you can build a custom theme for your store. Everything (design, features, and capabilities) can be tailored to your specific needs. If you cannot develop a theme in-house, you can outsource it to a certified Umbraco expert or a .NET developer. In any case, additional costs are inevitable.

Umbraco Plugins

Umbraco offers a wide variety of plugins - there are more than 1,200 extensions (or packages) on Our Umbraco (the Umbraco marketplace and community website).

They are divided into 7 categories:

• Collaboration - this category consists of 67 extensions that enable you to add e-commerce features to your Ucommerce website (e.g. Merchello), integrate your store with third-party CRM systems (e.g. uslightly), add a ‘Contact us’ module to your website, and more.
• Backoffice extensions - this category consists of 553 extensions such as data types, URL shorteners, widgets, workflows, language packs, structure extensions, and more.
• Developer tools - this category consists of 251 extensions such as app managers, compression tools, surface controllers, and more.
• Starter Kits - this category consists of 44 starter kits that can help you set up and configure your online store.
• Umbraco Pro - this category consists of only 2 extensions: Umbraco Courier and Umbraco Contour.
• Website utilities - this category consists of 267 extensions such as a JavaScript carousel module, a Google Analytics integration, a Twitter integration, an XSLTsearch, a banner management system, an Ucommerce integration, and more.
• Umbraco Cloud - this category consists of 28 extensions such as Umbraco Forms, smart search solution, URL picker, analytics tool, and more, which are specifically developed to work with the cloud version of Umbraco.

Umbraco Partners & Community

Umbraco partners with more than 150 companies. The partner companies are classified as:

• Gold partners - companies that are closely connected to Umbraco. Currently, Umbraco has 87 gold partners. Click here to see a list of all gold partners.
• Certified partners - companies that are officially validated as partners. Currently, Umbraco has 71 certified partners. Click here to see a list of all certified partners.
• Registered partners - small agencies or individuals (developers, designers, etc.) who develop solutions on top of Umbraco.

You can filter the partners based on their skills (API development, architecture, content creation, e-commerce, etc.), sector (finance, healthcare, retail, etc.), and location.

You can mark the checkboxes for as many sectors, skills, and locations, as you want.

This enables you to easily find a suitable partner to work with.

For example, if you need help with anything e-commerce related, you can mark the ‘E-commerce’ checkbox. Then, you will see a list of all 27 partner companies that have listed ‘e-commerce’ as one of their skills.

In addition, if you sell sports gear, for example, you can click on the ‘Sector’ button and mark the ‘Sport’ checkbox. Then, you will see a list of the companies that have specified they can work on sports-related e-commerce projects.

Aside from having a well-structured partners directory, Umbraco sports an extremely active online community - there are more than 200K members who are highly active on the Umbraco forum. Dozens of new posts appear every day. At the time of this writing, 10 posts have been published within the last hour alone.

Umbraco Pricing

Ucommerce for Umbraco

If you’re just starting out, you can get the free version of Ucommerce for Umbraco and upgrade to a paid version once your business scales.

There are two paid versions of Ucommerce for Umbraco that sport more advanced features - Umbraco Pro and Umbraco Enterprise. If you need more information you can check the official Ucommerce website.

Merchello for Umbraco

Being an open-source e-commerce engine, Merchello is free. However, if you want to contribute to the project and its development, you can purchase a Gratitude Licence for $100.

Wrap-up

* If you want to add e-commerce features to your Umbraco website, you will need to integrate it with a third-party e-commerce solution. Ucommerce and Merchello, for example, are such solutions.

We hope this article gives you a better idea of what Umbraco can offer!

Stay tuned for our article on Kentico - the next blog post from the series dedicated to the best .NET e-commerce platforms!

This article is part of a blog series dedicated to the best .NET e-commerce platforms - nopCommerce, Virto Commerce, DNN, Umbraco, Kentico, Sitecore, and Sitefinity.

So far, we have discussed 4 of these platforms - nopCommerce, Virto Commerce, DNN, and Umbraco. We discussed each platform's architecture, features, marketplace, ecosystem, pricing, and more.

Today, we will talk about Kentico.

Kentico is a web content management system (CMS) based on ASP.NET. Unlike Umbraco, Kentico offers e-commerce features out-of-the-box.

Kentico History

Kentico is a Czech-based company that was founded in June 2004 by Petr Palas. One month later, in July 2004, Kentico 1.0 was released.

Kentico 2.0 was released in 2006. The same year Kentico became an official Microsoft Certified partner.

In 2008, Kentico became a Microsoft Gold Partner. The same year Kentico opened its first US office (the second US office was opened in 2011) and was named Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Rising Star.

In 2009 Kentico 4.0 and Kentico 5.0 were released. Kentico won two awards and was named Fast 50 Rising Star for a second consecutive year.

In 2010 Kentico 5.5 and Kentico 5.5 R2 were released. In addition, the certified training courses were launched and the the first Kentico Conference was held. Not surprisingly, Kentico was named the fastest growing company in the Czech Republic.

In 2011 Kentico 6.0 was released and Kentico launched their 24/7 global support.

In 2012 Kentico 7.0 was released and the company opened an office in Australia.

In 2013 Kentico was named Best CMS (DevPro Community Choice Awards).

In 2014 Kentico launched its Integrated Marketing Solution and was recognized as a Notable Vendor by Gartner.

In 2016 Kentico was recognized as a Niche Player by Gartner (Gartner Magic Quadrant for Horizontal Portals).

The last stable version of Kentico, Kentico 11.0, was released in December 2017.

Today Kentico employs more than 200 people, has offices on 3 continents (Europe, North America, and Australia), and powers more than 15K websites worldwide.

Kentico Architecture

• ASP.NET MVC 5
• Open API
• Microsoft Azure integration

Kentico Features

• Responsive design
• Full control over design. You’re not limited to predefined designs or product types. Everything is fully customizable and can be tailored to your specific needs and preferences.
• Marketing features. You can manage all your marketing activities and customer data from a single management portal. You can also deliver highly engaging customer experiences across multiple channels (social media platforms, email, and more).
• Multilingual support
• Multi-currency support
• Fully configurable products
• Product variants. Customers can customize their products (color, size, custom prints, etc.)
• Downloadable products. You can sell ebooks, software, music, online courses, etc.
• Bundles. You can group different products and sell them as a bundle.
• Discounts. You can create rule-based discounts, buy X get Y discounts, and more.
• Structured product catalogs
• Multiple payment methods. Kentico integrates with multiple payment providers.
• Multiple shipping methods. Kentico integrates with multiple shipping providers.
• Fully customizable checkout process. You can create a custom checkout process, i.e. define the checkout steps yourself.
• Split orders. You can split orders into multiple shipments with different tracking numbers.
• Google Analytics integration
• 30+ built-in store reports

These are some of the more significant e-commerce Features Kentico offers out-of-the-box. See a list of all features.

Similar to Umbraco, Kentico integrates with Ucommerce. The price of Ucommerce for Kentico is €6.999 per year per production server. See what features Ucommerce for Kentico offers.

Kentico Themes

There are 13 products in the web site templates category of the Kentico Marketplace (DevNet).

2 of these products are themes for e-commerce websites:

• A free responsive template for e-commerce websites.
• Shopictes - a responsive and fully customizable e-commerce template that comes with more than 30 template pages. It also comes with a set of plugins including mega menu, newsletter templates, integrated blog for your store, etc. Shopictes is a commercial template. It costs €1,999.

Kentico Plugins

There are 21 e-commerce extensions on the Kentico Marketplace - payment gateways (Stripe, PayPal, eWay, etc.), email marketing modules, integrations, currency converters, and more.

Ultimately, Kentico doesn’t offer a wide choice of themes and extensions for e-commerce websites.

However, since it is a fully integrated ASP.NET, e-commerce, and online marketing platform, it offers you all the tools and functionalities you need to run a successful online business. For example, with the set of CMS and marketing features Kentico offers out-of-the-box, you can easily create and manage promotional campaigns, blog post, highly converting product pages, and much more.

Kentico Partners & Community

Kentico has more than 1,000 partner companies that are classified as:

• Solution partners - Kentico partners with companies from 50+ industries (beauty/cosmetics, e-commerce, electronics, intranet, IT, marketing, retail, etc.). There are 168 companies that are classified as e-commerce solution partners. You can see the number of websites each partner has developed, as well as the number of certified developers and marketers in the partner’s company. In addition, you can see the partner level (Gold, Silver, or Bronze) and whether the partner is classified as a Kentico Quality Expert. Having all this information makes finding a suitable partner to work with extremely easy.
• Technology partners - Kentico has 7 technology partners among which DiscoverIT, inRiver, and Ucommerce.
• Hosting partners - Kentico partners with more than 40 partner companies among which winhost, Everleap, E-tech computing, and more.

Kentico doesn’t have an active online community. The last activity on the Kentico forum is from 2014.

However, this doesn’t mean that community support is unavailable. You can submit support issues on the official Kentico website. And if you need premium support, you can purchase a premium support package.

Kentico Pricing

Kentico has 3 versions: Kentico CMS Base, Kentico CMS Ultimate, and Kentico EMS. The price of each version depends on the licence you want to purchase.

For example, this is the price list for a 1 Website License:

You can also purchase an unlimited websites licence and an unlimited server licence. Click here for more information on licence conditions and pricing.

Wrap-up

We hope this article gave you a better idea of what Kentico can offer and whether it's the best choice for your e-commerce business.

Stay tuned for our article on Sitecore - the next blog post of the series dedicated to the best .NET e-commerce platforms!

This article is part of a series of blog posts dedicated to the best .NET e-commerce platforms out there - nopCommerce, Virto Commerce, DNN, Umbraco, Kentico, Sitecore, and Sitefinity.

So far, we have discussed nopCommerce, Virto Commerce, DNN, Umbraco, and Kentico.

Today, we will talk about Sitecore - an integrated e-commerce solution and a CMS (Content Management System) platform based on ASP.NET Core.

Sitecore’s e-commerce product is called Sitecore Experience Commerce - a cloud-enabled platform that leverages the power of content, commerce, and customer data. As a result, it enables you to deliver more personalized and value-driven customer experiences across multiple channels.

Sitecore History

Sitecore was founded in 2001 in Copenhagen, Denmark but its story began in 1998 when 5 friends (University of Copenhagen alumni) founded Pentia A/S.

Pentia A/S was a systems integration company that patented a set of tools for website development and content management. The most popular product the company developed was a CMS called Sitecore. In 2001 Sitecore became a separate entity.

Over the years, Sitecore acquired Pectora’s development team and intellectual property (2011), took ownership of Commerce Server’s development and marketing (2013), introduced its social media marketing suite Sitecore Social (2014), and more.

In 2016 Sitecore was recognized as one of the companies that matter most in the digital content industry (by EContent Magazine).

Its last stable version, Sitecore 9.0, was released in October 2017. The same year Sitecore was named a Leading Commerce Platform (by DealCrunch).

In 2018 Sitecore was awarded the Top Rated award (by TrustRadius). In addition, it continued its “9-year run as a Leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Web Content Management” (source: Sitecore website).

Sitecore Architecture

All Sitecore products (i.e. Sitecore Experience Manager, Sitecore Experience Platform, and Sitecore Experience Commerce) are based on a microservice architecture. This enables you to easily scale your Sitecore solution.

Each Sitecore service implements a number of roles and entities that form the functionalities of the Sitecore platform.

The roles and entities can be classified as:

• Storage roles - the storage roles store data such as content, customer information, etc.
• Application roles - there are two types of application roles: web roles and worker roles
• Indexes - their purpose is to help you find data more easily
• Cloud services - services that are hosted by Sitecore in the cloud

Watch this video to learn more about the architecture of Sitecore

Sitecore Features

Some of the more significant features Sitecore Experience Commerce offers include:

• A drag-and-drop interface with 40+ e-commerce controls. You can create beautiful product pages, promotional campaigns, etc.
• Multi-store support
• Multi-warehouse support
• CMS features
• Real-time customer tracking. Sitecore tracks and learns from every single customer interaction. Then, it gives you valuable data-driven insights. As a result, it enables you to deliver personalized and contextual customer experiences.
• Embedded marketing automation
• Customer management. You can segment your customers, manage customer information, and more.
• Catalog management. You can create and manage product catalogs and category hierarchies. You can display them in different languages, currencies, etc.
• Inventory management. You can manage multiple inventory sets, online-to-offline inventory, as well as inventory for multiple stores, multiple warehouses, etc.
• Order management. You can manage order details, returns, refunds, fulfillment options, payment options, etc. You can also hold, cancel and delete orders, as well as add, edit, or delete items from pending orders, and more.
• Promotions management. You can create rule-based discounts, apply multiple qualifications to a promotion, calculate bulk promotions, offer coupons, etc.
• Pricing management. You can allow multiple purchase options, support multiple currencies, etc.
• Braintree integration
• Seamless integration with back-office systems such as CRMs, ERPs, etc.

Similar to Umbraco and Kentico, Sitecore integrates with Ucommerce. The price is €6.999 per year per production server. Read more here

Sitecore Themes

Sitecore Experience Commerce offers two types of themes:

• Site Themes - basic themes with limited functionalities
• Base Themes - foundation themes with more advanced functionalities

Ultimately, if you choose Sitecore, your choice of themes will be very limited. However, you can build a custom theme for your website from scratch and customize it in a way that perfectly meets your business needs. If you cannot do this in-house, you will have to outsource it to a third-party .NET developer, or a certified Sitecore partner. In any case, there will be additional costs.

See how to add an existing theme to your Sitecore e-commerce website or create one from scratch

Sitecore Plugins

There are more than 800 plugins on the Sitecore Marketplace that are divided into 14 categories: administration, commerce, translation and localization, website optimization, setup and deployment, and more.

Sitecore offers a variety of plugins: automated publisher, licence expiration notifier, code editor, tax solutions, custom checklist fields, advanced image module, authenticated preview, media template changer, language fallback module, analytics database manager, and much more.

Sitecore Partners & Community

Sitecore’s partner companies are classified as:

• Solution partners - companies that provide implementation services, support, digital marketing solutions, and more. There are 3 levels of solution partners -silver, gold, and platinum. Find a Sitecore solution partner to work with.
• Technology partners - companies that extend the capabilities of Sitecore. Sitecore has 22 technology partners among which Microsoft, Coveo, and more.

Note that Sitecore is strongly supported by its partners.

In fact, Sitecore is “100 percent partner driven”, meaning that they have never built a single solution for a customer. Such solutions come solely from their partners.

Sitecore is strongly supported by its online community as well. Sitecore’s community consists of developers, designers, marketers, store owners, .NET enthusiasts, etc.

The community is highly active on the Sitecore forum - there are thousands of posts, new posts appear every day, and, at the time of this writing, the last activity on the forum was 5 hours ago.

Sitecore Pricing

You can purchase a licence for 4 Sitecore products:

• Sitecore Experience Platform
• Sitecore Experience Commerce
• Sitecore Experience Manager
• Omnichannel marketing add-ons

The product licensing is subscription-based. It takes into account the number of monthly visits, the number of installations, the number of users, and the add-ons.

If you need premium 24/7 support for any of the products, you can purchase a premium support package.

Read more about license models, or get a quote

Wrap-up

We hope this article gave you a better idea of what Sitecore offers! Stay tuned for our article on Sitefinity - the next blog post from the series dedicated to the best .NET e-commerce platforms!