Are There Any Argentine Website Builders?

[sheawj]

I have a few, probably boring, questions...
For almost 4 years, I have worked for a company that sells imported watches, jewelry, and handbags (Michael Kors, Tommy Hilfiger, Guess, etc). For our company's website, we have used Webnode and my boss pays for a premium package and has been for 3 years. There are a lot of photos involved.
Problem:
We renew our premium subscription annually and our subscription is about up. I have tried to use my boss's assorted credit cards as usual to pay for the site, but the transactions have been denied over and over. I talked to the Webnode reps last week, and they informed me that the cards were being rejected by the acquirer. My boss believes that this is a government restriction thing, as she also can't really make purchases on eBay nor Amazon anymore, either. In pesos, the yearly subscription is over $1000.00 AR. If it is or not, I don't know because I haven't made any online purchases, but it does make sense.
A free version of Webnode only gives us 10 MB space. Currently we're using 10 times that, so I need another option.

I told my employer that I would look into any Argentine website places, similar to Webnode or Wix---that way we could pay with her cards without any problems. I Googled about yesterday and came up with nothing.

Honestly, I think we would be just fine using a free version of Wix, which gives us 500 MB of space. The thing are the ads involved with a free site (I have a Wix page for a personal site I have). Not sure if she will be down with that.

So, any other site builder suggestions? Do you really think her cards are being denied because of online purchase restrictions?
Any feedback people have will be great. I am looking forward to revamping our site, which I have been in charge of the past few years, but was built by someone else and I think is a bit dated and clunky...however, I am not wanting to spend a ton of time on a site that we can't use.

 

[scotttswan]

You could easily find an Argentine host (not sure how much they are, probably a rip off compared to other places) and put up a website.

I presume the website has a checkout / inventory /ordering system rather than just being a static website with contact details?

you might want to look into

http://magento.com/resources/technical

http://www.opencart.com/

http://www.oscommerce.com/

and take your existing design over to one of these backends. This should be done quite easily, only the backend / data could be a hassle depending on the formats.

I doubt there is a company offering a "build your own website" system like webnode here.

Alternatively look into another way to get money to webnode.

 

[Joe]

Don't you have any US or other oversea's credit cards? Maybe you can pay by Paypal. Or give cash to a friend in exchange for letting you use their card for the purchase. It's only about $150 US I'm guessing.

Building a new website would be time consuming and cost you a lot more than $150.

 

[wongjoh]

You can also try MercadoShops (www.mercadoshops.com.ar) -- it's a full solution (website builder + ecommerce + channel management) from MercadoLibre. While I may be biased here, I think it's the best regional solution and it keeps improving (or I lose my job ;-)

 

[thorsten]

I don't know how the situation looks like here, but a lot of hosting companies in Europe have packages with PHP/mySQL and preconfigured CMS like Typo3 or Joomla. There are also a lot of free shopping solutions if this is the focus (instead of mostly representing the companies offers). That being said, you should try to find a host whose servers are located in Argentina, otherwise your visitors might not have the best experience speed-wise.

 

[sheawj]

Thank you so much, everybody. Looks like I have some options that I didn't realize before.
My boss won't use PayPal, that quirky gal, so that is out. I had suggested it, also. No, she doesn't have any overseas cards.

You can also try MercadoShops (www.mercadoshops.com.ar) -- it's a full solution (website builder + ecommerce + channel management) from MercadoLibre. While I may be biased here, I think it's the best regional solution and it keeps improving (or I lose my job ;-)

Yes, we actually have a MercadoShop as we are quite busy on MercadoLibre (most of my day is spent answering questions from ML clients and/or publishing new items). There are 3 of us that work on the ML end and we are proud MercadoLiders. B)
I think the setup for MercadoShops has improved quite a bit the past few months, nicer layouts and prices that automatically update. I really liked all the layouts and such when we were checking it out recently.

 

[Joe]

Thank you so much, everybody. Looks like I have some options that I didn't realize before.
My boss won't use PayPal, that quirky gal, so that is out. I had suggested it, also. No, she doesn't have any overseas cards.



Yes, we actually have a MercadoShop as we are quite busy on MercadoLibre (most of my day is spent answering questions from ML clients and/or publishing new items). There are 3 of us that work on the ML end and we are proud MercadoLiders. B)
I think the setup for MercadoShops has improved quite a bit the past few months, nicer layouts and prices that automatically update. I really liked all the layouts and such when we were checking it out recently.

Question is can you move everything over to ML before your WIX contract ends? In addition, it would be highly preferable to redirect your existing web addresses to ML if you can do that for several months at the very least.

 

[Gringoboy]

I use a hosting and web design outfit in San Telmo.
They are efficient, friendly and reasonably priced.

 

[che]

I would host in Argentina so you have no trouble paying your fees for hosting.

For platform i use and suggest you use wordpress. There some themes that make wordpress easier tgan it already is. And as a platform it is free.

 

[Sleuth]

Check out http://www.ombushop.com/ too