How To Find the Technology Behind an E-commerce Site?

admin
23 Dec, 2011

FAQs

The e-commerce sites can be online via a number of solutions. The site can be developed:

With a customized solution (Development processing);
From a software solution: Magento, Prestashop, osCommerce, Zen Cart, IBM Websphere Commerce Server, Microsoft Commerce Server, etc …
From a SAAS platform: PowerBoutique, Oxatis, Rentashop, 42Stores …;
From a tool for as a CMS (WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, etc …)

When you’re on an e-cart, how to know the technology that runs behind you?

Examples:

Magento sites, when it comes to the purchasing process the link ends with “checkout / OnePage /”
For sites IBM Websphere commerce server, there is usually the “wcs” in the URLs of pages basket or purchasing process.
For Microsoft sites, the shopping page often ends with “Cart.aspx” (with the extension aspx, a sign of the Microsoft technology).

I could multiply examples … but anyway with a little practice, you can guess the platform behind the e-commerce website very quickly.

If you do not know the platform (possibly because the site is developed with a specific programming language), by searching a bit, you get in general idea to identify the technology behind the site:

“. Php ‘for sites in PHP
“. Asp” for sites using the old technology of Microsoft;
“. Aspx” for sites using the new technology “. NET” of Microsoft;
“. Cfm” for sites using ColdFusion (technology for developing Web sites carried today by Adobe);
“Servlet” somewhere in the URL for sites based on Java;

Interesting?

Well, it is useful to really know which technology powers the various sites. This is a great way to get a good idea about what makes a particular platform more popular. However, this analysis is limited but can help you to choose your next e-commerce platform.

Note: Each shopping cart software demands different kinds of server resources so make sure you pick the right hosting platform for your e-cart. If you are at starting point then you can start with shared hosting, but for advanced features, you should consider Cloud Hosting Virtual Private Server, or Dedicated Server Hosting.