Anyone have at least 10,000 items in their store?

[cbsteven]

Looking for feedback from other users with a LOT of items. Please reply to my other thread here:
3dCart Shopping Cart Software Forums - View Single Post - Inconsistent Uptime

[Meadows]

Search

3d Search can be a bit slow with that many items. We have changed over to search from Logika.net that we have incorporated, as we have over 100K products on our website. Ask for John Sortino. And PLEASE tell them you heard about them through Simply Solutions, as we get credit for referrals. I am not recommending them because of the referral incentive. We have loved their customer service and their work, and have been using them since Feb. 2012.

[cbsteven]

Do you mind me asking how much you pay? I have looked at a couple of third party searches and the prices seem very expensive. Is the integration with your site transparent/tight?

[elightbox]

I would suggest that you make sure whether you are on an Access database or a SQL. With that many products no matter what anyone says, you need to be on a SQL server. 3dcart loves to be mysterious about how the back end works, but if you are persistent you will find which plan offers that capability and get on it. Access can only do so much that is why Microsoft offers both.

[lukiegames]

With that many products I would also recommend a different search engine. We use Searchspring. It isn't the cheapest but it's paid for itself many times over. They even did a case study on us, it's worth a look - http://www.searchspring.net/wp-conte...lukiegames.pdf

[Meadows]

Do you mind me asking how much you pay? I have looked at a couple of third party searches and the prices seem very expensive. Is the integration with your site transparent/tight?

You would need to get with them on a quote, as I have a custom design from them, so I am sure mine is pricey, but even so, I have talked with MANY people over the course of a couple years, and found this company to be the best at what they do with the best customer service and very fair pricing.

The integration with our site is awesome!

[lukiegames]

One thing to keep in mind is that some of them fully integrate not just with your search but also your categories and product browsing as well. That keeps the experience consistent and was a huge boost to us. We actually used Fusionbot before Searchspring, they were nice, responsive, and helped our site as well but the category integration made moving a no-brainer. We have a much higher percentage of browsers on our site than normal though so it might not be as important to everyone. But I know when I shop I like the same filters, options, experience, etc if it is a search or I'm just browsing.

You'll also want to make sure they have a system in place that "learns" what your customers really want. For example if a search for "widget" shows WidgetA then WidgetB and then WidgetC but all your customers skip over the first 2 and click on WidgetC it will learn that your customers are usually looking for WidgetC and will move it up in the results.

There are probably several decent solutions for 3dcart now, I'd contact them all and see what you think. Don't skimp on search though, if your customers can't find what they want quickly and easily they will go to a site where they can.

[jbanks6424]

Searchspring Pricing....

Apparently the pricing on the 3dcart website for searchspring is wrong....

It does not start at $99 per month(10k query) any more. It starts at $249 per month(25k query)

Marketing Materials | SearchSpring

[Spesh]

We've been looking at switching up the search also. We have around 30,000 items in our system, plus now with blog posts the advance search is terrible. (terrible as in slow, it's actually rather cool when it worked). Most of the time it just goes to a white page with a 3Dcart logo telling our customers that it broke.

Anyway, we've turned it off, but switching to the other paid ones looks pricy to us. I think the 3Dcart one is $280 a month for amount of items we sell.

On a side note, this page - 3DX Enterprise Ecommerce Solutions | 3DCart Shopping Cart Software mentions 'No Hidden Fees', I think not having your search work then having to upgrade to get it to work would be a hidden fee.

[cbsteven]

We implemented SearchSpring two weeks ago and have been really pleased. It is very fast and flexible. I can no drill down by any product attribute on searches or category browsing. The SearchSpring support team has been almost impossibly good, customizing features for me quickly and without extra fees.

The only downside is one you mention.. it doesn't index static pages like blog posts. It just indexes your product database You can add links to them manually, though, to appear at the top of related search queries.