I was wondering if there are any production Magento stores up and running in the UK?
I’ve very thing I’ve read sounds great and Magento looks much more appealing than solution’s I’ve used in the past but I don’t want to be the UK guinea pig!
The Magento team do not recommend using the software on a live website until after the production release (v1.0), which should be out at the end of the month. That said, I may have a site go live before then (if I do, I’ll post a link).
I’m currently working on a site (I’ll upgrade as soon as 1.0 is launched). I usually work with Zen-Cart/Oscommerce/Virtuemart but Magento looked too good an opportunity to miss, thought I’d get in early!
Thankfully not being VAT registered (new company not earning millions yet ) I have a chance of getting this setup working. Currently I cannot see how any VAT registered companies can get magento working without some major modding.
surely you just add the right rates in for UK and EU countries in the Tax section? It looked ok to me. Assuming I’m doing it the right way ...
VAT isn’t calculated properly in shipping rates as far as I can tell. Also if you inc VAT in the prices by using the shipping origin method as you have to, it charges VAT on shipping abroad or to the Channel Islands.
If you pay VAT, you’ll end up having to work out your tax returns manually.
Working on it as well - but having problems with UK Google Checkout - Magento is not passing any shipping charges on to Google...a big problem! Once that is sorted, we’re going live
hey lisa,
have you heard any more on the uk google checkout issues ? i’m keen as am awaiting this before i start to build ...
Also, from my looking at things, google seems a lot more reasonably priced than either paypal pro or using protx etc.. can you enlighten me as to your reasons for choosing google checkout ?
regards,
nigel
No, I have not heard anything about this. I have even asked Varien, the makers of Magento, and I am waiting to hear back from them. I have not seen one single Magento site, US or UK, where Google Checkout works properly and carries over the correct shpping charge from Magento cart.
I am going with Google Checkout as their charges are really low (compared to everybody else), and it is a name people trust. I have personally had problems with PayPal before, and in case of any problems, their support is horrible. Google Checkout also do not have any minimums or standing charges, and they pay as often as you want, into any bank account.
But - we need to get Google Checkout to work first! Anybody?
Lisa
It’s taken me just over a week of part-time effort to get to this point, with no web experience. My background is in IT development though. I’m just waiting for the go-live on Protx to get the credit card capability working (it has worked via their test site). Also have a few things to tickle up, but mainly around look/feel.
I’m hoping that some graphic designers start building up some decent themes for it, such as you get with Joomla. I’m very aware I’ve just changed the fonts, graphics on the demo site, but I don’t see why I should be too much effort into the theme at this point - I’d rather be live then worry about that. It’s certainly not going to win any awards!!
Big problems I’ve had:
1) Special Delivery - I’ve coded up a shipping method but this breaks Google Checkout. I’ve left it off for initial release and raised a bug with Magento.
2) Shipping charges not showing on Google Checkout - I can get standard delivery to work, but not for the free over £50 rule. So I’m running it with a 2.99 flatrate delivery when via google checkout (those who spend over 50 quid will wonder what’s up!!).
3) Import/Export - it’s pretty rubbish as loses lots of info. Caused me problems moving from a testbed area.
I’m really impressed with Magento, it’s extremely powerful. I’m just a retailer really, but if I can do this in a week imagine what the designers will be able to achieve!
I have another store www.rawcomponents.co.uk, which I’m just about to transfer over. This is currently running on Ekmpowershop which was fine at the time, but if you compare the look/feel with what I have creaed with Magento there is absolutely no comparison.
I am not sure if you have been following some other threads on here discussing Google Checkout problems. I have not seen one single Magento site where Google Checkout works properly with shipping.
When a user pays using Google Checkout, do you get updates in Magento admin with the order and buyer info?
Thanks for the heads up. I have read around a bit, but missed this one. Thats what happens when you put a site live without fully testing it! I do get the same problem, no record of sale in Magento.
TBH, its not a showstopper for me. I generate invoices manually, so as long as I have a record of the sale I can cope. Google Checkout gives me this from what I can see. Worst case scenario for me is someone rings me up and I take the payment over the phone.
I think once my Protx is live I will remove Google Checkout from the equation. I have the problem with delivery rates, and not being able to use Special Delivery so removing Google Checkout will help that.
My own experience on Google Checkout with my other site has been not too many people are keen on using it. Maybe that will improve, and a lot of my customer base is either trade or ebay, so they prefer cheque/credit or paypal. Plus I find doing the books with Google Checkout is an absolute nightmare. They dont issue a monthly statement as far as I am aware, and the charges are all hidden away, so it makes it hard to understand and document. They also discount for my usage of Google Ad-words, which is great, but again confuses the book-keeping.
The one thing I like about Google Checkout is the icon it adds onto Google adwords. This makes them stand out against the crowd I think.
Thanks again for the info. I’m waiting for the site to crash down round me! Just need to get the VAT side sorted now....
That is not an issue for me at the moment, as we are not VAT registered. However, the Google Checkout issue is a big problem, as we intend to start small-scale, and their charges are in fact the lowest on the market AFAIK. So we were gonna use only them, but as Magento GC module is obviously broken, we have to consider possibly PayPal at this stage, or giving up Magento alltogether.
Regarding your orders not showing up in Magento - do you have SSL and have you entered that SSL URL in your GC settings?
Hi Karen,
I think your store looks ok - far better than the average zen-cart template!
However, on my machine (XP SP2, Firefox 2) on the home page the ‘Shop By Brand’ element is too far to the right - forces horizontal scroll bars. Nothing too major.
Have you got your issues resolved re: UK VAT & Google checkout, etc?
) I have a chance of getting this setup working. Currently I cannot see how any VAT registered companies can get magento working without some major modding.
