NopCommerce – the best feature-rich, affordable e-commerce platform

At Comalytics, we’ve done our homework and selected the best platform for the needs of our B2C clients: NopCommerce. Despite its low profile, NopCommerce is often chosen as a solution for performance, value for money and sheer effectiveness by head developers and Chief Technology Officers (CTOs) of big businesses. We use it as the platform for all our B2C e-commerce software solutions (our B2B sites are built on a different platform). It’s feature-rich, secure, robust and can be customised to perfectly fit the needs of any business, large or small.

What is an e-commerce platform?

E-commerce software consists of several parts, but as a general rule there is a front end and a back end:

1. The front end is what a visitor to the site sees and it includes:
   • A catalogue of products;
   • Content around those products, or about business information and processes (like Contact Us or Returns Policy pages);
   • The customer’s personal profile; and
   • Transaction pages, where the customer adds products to their cart and checks out, making an online payment in the process.

   The nuts and bolts of the front end include mark-up, style, accessibility, cross-browser/platform/device functionality, templates, CMS, usability and performance.

2. The back end is basically the brains behind the front end. It is the link between the site user and the server, made up of the:
   • Server;
   • Application; and
   • Database.

E-commerce platforms like NopCommerce allow merchants to take care of both the back and the front end. They are either proprietary or open-source, and can be installed on your premises or accessed from the cloud.

NopCommerce is an open-source, ASP.NET-based platform. This means that it is free to use, but requires Windows hosting – which can be expensive. At Comalytics we take care of the technical details for you and you have access to a world-class platform based in the cloud. You also have the option to integrate with your ERP system, which we highly recommend.

What makes NopCommerce such a remarkable e-commerce solution?

In an interview with Ecommerce News Europe, Alexandra Lykova, Marketing Manager of NopCommerce E-commerce Software Solution, said:

“NopCommerce offers a free, scalable and flexible ecommerce platform, constructed in such a way that it is capable of handling both enterprise and SMB projects.”

She added:

“In our technology stack (ASP.NET) we are undisputed leaders by features and by the number of installs. Concerning the PHP world we have the same flexibility and power as Magento but use fewer resources. We draw really close to the territory of enterprise platforms like Demandware, yet, we remain a 100% free solution offering all our functions to users without any reductions. NopCommerce also regularly releases new versions, while most other carts rarely update their free open-source versions.”

Because NopCommerce is open-source and free, we are able to use this exceptional e-commerce solution to build your site for you at a very affordable price. Your Comalytics package price takes into account only the time and effort of our designers and developers, making it truly cost effective.

NopCommerce features for your e-commerce site

• An extremely stable and customisable development platform that uses ASP.NET Core 2.1 with MS SQL back-end
• Scalability that allows your platform to grow with your business
• Straightforward installation and user-friendly admin capabilities
• Comprehensive catalogue and inventory management facilities
• Everything you need to create a beautiful, feature-rich storefront your customers will love
• Built-in responsiveness so your site looks good and functions well on any device
• Features that help you easily take care of SEO
• Several payment options, including credit and debit card, via integration with over 50 international payment gateways – and at Comalytics we’ve added a further 6 South African payment gateways
• Shipping management tools that can be integrated with popular carriers – at Comalytics we have integrated to SmartFreight in South Africa, making rate calculations simple and accurate
• The ability to manage many stores and vendors, as well as offer drop shipping
• Marketing functions such as customisable emails, discounts, coupons, rewards points and gift cards
• The option to quickly launch micro stores for special promotions
• Live chat support and customer feedback applications
• And many more…

NopCommerce believes in listening to its customers. They are continually making improvements and adding new features and functionality to the system, most often based on suggestions from their vendors and clients.

How does NopCommerce compare to other e-commerce platforms?

G2Crowd has developed a grid that rates e-commerce platform software on two elements:

• Satisfaction, which is based on user reviews; and
• Market presence, which takes into account products, scale, focus and influence.

NopCommerce is a “High Performer”. It is rated highly by users, but doesn’t yet have the market presence of the big players, the “Leaders”.

Based on these stats, NopCommerce is well on its way to a greater market presence:

• 2,500,000+ downloads
• Used by over 50,000 online store owners
• Over 7,000 new stores added annually
• More than 2,000 plugins
• Free and premium themes
• Multiple language packs, with more in the pipeline
• 3 annual conferences, with a 4th soon to be added

Other NopCommerce accolades

In case you need more convincing that this is the right solution for you, let’s look at some further evidence of NopCommerce’s success:

Famous clients using NopCommerce

NopCommerce has well-known clients worldwide, including:

• In Europe:
  • Volvo Accessories (Volvo Car Lifestyle Collection)
  • Casio UK
  • Turkish Airlines (Shop and Miles)
  • BMW Netherlands
• In the U.S.:
  • National Football League
• In Australia:
  • Speedo
  • Lacoste
  • North Face
  • Lee Jeans
• Celebrities:
  • Céline Dion
  • James Taylor
• South Africa
  • Plumblink
  • Hannon
  • ToniGlass Collection
  • Randolph Sunglasses
  • and many more

Awards received by NopCommerce

CMS Critics Awards are given to a range of software levels, from small scale to enterprise-level. The results are decided based entirely on user votes. NopCommerce won:

• In 2015: Best eCommerce for SMB
• In 2017: Best eCommerce Solution, 2nd place

Independent reviews

For further reading, see these reliable sources:

• https://ecommerce-platforms.com/articles/nopcommerce-review
• https://comparisons.financesonline.com/nopcommerce-vs-magento
• https://reviews.financesonline.com/p/nopcommerce/best-open-source-e-commerce-solution-based-asp-net-mvc-4-0-54889

The bottom line…

At Comalytics, we believe NopCommerce is the best fit for our B2C clients and we’re proud to offer it as part of our B2C package. As an e-commerce software platform, its performance, flexibility and cost effectiveness help it outrank many other contenders. It offers many more features than other platforms and for a better price too. We also know from our customer’s feedback that it is easy to learn and manage, and has made a difference in their business performance. It can make a difference in yours too.