On Thu, 16 Mar 2006, Art Pollard wrote:
I'm in need of some shopping cart software for a little (well not quite so
little) project.
I would like to find "the best" solution without spending tons of $$$. I
don't mind it being hosted by someone else -- though I have my own server so
I'd need a way to link to it somehow. If I can host it on our Linux server,
that is fine too.
A few of the things I would really like are:
* Easy customization of HTML / colors / custom graphics / etc.
* Good UI for users.
* Affiliates program
* Inventory Control
* Ability to notify multiple people in the advent of order
* Usual billing stuff.
* Ability to have more than one "catalog" -- this way I can have a second
password protected catalog for wholesale orders.
* Strong shipping options.
* I'm not going to have 100's of products so it need not be db driven.
* etc.
I found one called ShopSite that looks very robust but it looks like it is
pretty expensive though apparently, there are some hosted solutions (isps)
that use it. Does anyone have any recommendations for shopping cart
software? Any resources to find a good one? Advise? Things to stay away
from?
Oh, and what is the project? Well, my "little side project" is that I will
be opening sometime this summer a chocolate factory in Orem -- we will be
making a high quality (European style) chocolate all the way from the cocoa
bean. We will be importing our own beans from Central America and other
locations to turn into chocolate. I've spent the last year importing vintage
chocolate manufacturing machinery and hopefully, sometime in the next few
months, we will be up and running. It's quite different than cranking code
all day and gives me a good change in pace.
Thanks,
-Art
Mmmmmm... chocolate...!
Well, web hosting and e-commerce is my business and I am sad to say that I
am still looking for the perfect cart. I am designing my own currently.
Anyway, I have been unimpressed with all of the free ones that I have
found. I have used to good commercial products, but they still do not
meet all of my needs. I sell ShopSite, Mercantec SoftCart, and Miva
Merchant servers but as you mentioned, they are not really cheap. The one
free one that I have used the most is osCommerce and some of the
osCommerce spinoffs like Zen-Cart.com, x-cart.com, and osc-Max. The basic
osCommerce takes a lot of work to get it to do what you want. Some of the
spinoffs are more decent.
These are some that I have never used but were recommended to me by other
hosting providers like myself:
Chain Reaction Reloaded (osC spinoff I think)
creloaded.com
CartWeaver
cartweaver.com
PDG Cart
http://www.hens-teeth.net/html/products/PDG/index.htm
hth,
Jonathan
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