The Best eCommerce Solution

Please Help Me Choose!

[cabbagehead]

I am evaluating ecommerce options for a client who wants to add a store to their successful website (php).

The solutions discussed so far are:

1. OS Commerce
2. ComDev (comdevweb.com)
3. Yahoo Store (hosted)
4. Monster Commerce
5. Other?

Does anyone have any opinions? The client is very design centric and wants layout versatility. They also have a fulfillment house arrangement and will want to automate sending the orders to the client. I'm sure they'll eventually decide they want good reporting as well.

Here are some of the benefits I've considered so far for each:

1. Yahoo - I hear it has excellent reporting. It makes real-time reporting of orders pretty easy. You don't have to have your own merchant account (I think?). I believe you can still completely customize the store to make it look like the rest of your site?

2. OS Commerce - Seems to be the open source standard for eCommerce in the PHP World. Seems to have all the main tools. I have to admin however that their main website is not designed well (user interface) and so it makes me a bit concerned.

3. ComDev - Seems pretty good from what I've seen. Very intuitive and seems to have the core features needed. The downside is - I just heard about it today...i'm not sure how reputable it is?

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

[Corey Bryant]

Yahoo's gateway is compatible with Paypal. But you still would want a merchant account to handle credit card transactions. Yahoo will charge you .5%-1.5% (gateway fees) on top of what the merchant account processor will charge you. Most gateways will just charge you a monthly fee and no other transaction fees.

-Corey

[edited by: lorax at 1:23 am (utc) on Feb. 16, 2007]

[jsinger]

The downside is...

Company is 4 years old, HQ'd in Malaysia and no phone number on the site (that I could find). Activity on their discussion board seems pretty limited. Quick glance at their user base wasn't very impressive.

I'd sleep a lot better using Monster in Illinois or Shopsite in Utah. Or Yahoo stores

[cabbagehead]

Interesting - so both responses to my post have suggested using the hosted platforms in some way, shape, or form ... instead of building a custom cart using OS Commerce or ConDev? Is that pretty much the way everyone is going these days? Or can a case still be made for building and hosting your own?

[Corey Bryant]

I prefer to use my own solution. This gives more control over more things. Using a hosted solution / proprietary solution, sometimes is great for people who are starting up but once they learn more, they might require more which could cost more or just not be available.

-Corey

[ItsAllBallBearings]

do your research on ShopSite as they might be related to Imergent/StoresOnline.
Thats all i will say, just do your research

[jsinger]

Imergent, a publicly owned company on the AMEX, and Shopsite, a private firm, are both located in Orem, Utah, a city of 85,000. They are in different zip codes. Imergent's SEC filings make no mention of Shopsite.

I did a fair amount of research and found no connection between the two firms. We've used Shopsite for several years and couldn't be happier with their product.

[Scally_Ally]

its funny that no-one has really said anything about OS Commerce.
I am in the process of building a shop for a client and am using OS for the first time, i find it very flexible and easy to install, further more the design and layout can be changed quite easily by changing the templates.
I havent completed the full process yet but so far so good. As it is open source there are alot of extra modules and classes written specifically for it which is good.
Ally

[Jack_Hughes]

we have used jshop in the past with success. it is a php based cart with lots of extras and good support including an active forum.

also elastic path java based cart...but they'll need the $$$ for that.

[lethal0r]

im about to use OS Commerce for a client site. Took me all morning to install it with PHP 5. Their documentation is not the greatest if you get stuck, but there is plenty of good user contributed stuff to help you out.

Just going off this mornings experience it seems os commerce with PHP 5 is highly untested, im sure its a breeze with version 4 though.

[moobleguy]

i use cubecart works pretty well - we produced a good site for it (look at source code) - validates, SE friendly urls, loads of mods avialable, etc
i think cubecart is based on oscommerce orginally anyway.

[edited by: lorax at 12:52 pm (utc) on Feb. 16, 2007]
[edit reason] no URLs please, see TOS [webmasterworld.com] [/edit]

[justablink]

I would recommend a off the shelf product that already has Google Checkout integrated, like:
OSCommerce
Channel Advisor
MIVA
MonsterCommerce

You will be glad you did!
justablink

[arnarn]

As the lyrics go "... is that all there is?"

I just can't believe in this day and age that there isn't something better.

We've primarily been using Miva solutions but have concerns about their re-structuring and the long-term direction of their company, given their past merger and current status.

Is there anything (maybe even Miva-like), not overly expensive, where you can have complete (almost) control over your store AND web site, and not have to subscribe to a service?

[topguy29]

For a cart, Modular Merchant. For a merchant account, we relied on LoudCommerce for a merchant account and chose LinkPoint as a gateway.

There are hundreds of options available and it took us about a month to decide on the cart.

[Abison]

"I am evaluating ecommerce options for a client who wants to add a store to their successful website (php)."

Does your client need integrated communications between their back end piece and the eCommerce side?

-Scott

[ssgumby]

Let me suggest ecommercetemplates. It is very flexible, has built in capability for fedex, ups and usps .. built in capability for many payment processors including authorize.net, paypal and google checkout.

It is quite inexpensive and has a wonderful support system.

It is easily to maintain yourself ... I have taken their code and made some modifications that I specifically needed.

Check it out.

[Openg]

I have to agree that ecommercetemplates.com is the way to go. Once you have set up your system you pay no monthly fees other than those you pay to the payment provider of your choice.

The software is great (One of the owners used to program for Adobe before he set up the company) and the support is second to none.

[damon williams]

Nobody has mentioned Zen Cart yet, but they are a great open source choice.

[edited by: lorax at 2:33 pm (utc) on Feb. 22, 2007]
[edit reason] no URLs please [/edit]

[Corey Bryant]

Keep in mind that the first company that ssgumby mentioned is not a payment processor, but an electronic payment gateway. You still need a merchant account.

-Corey

[HMMurdock]

I've been toying with Volusion right now & been happy...

Very easy to optimize for SEO, lots of nice features and you dont need an IT dept to support/program it.

[edited by: lorax at 7:07 pm (utc) on Feb. 23, 2007]
[edit reason] no URLs please, see TOS [webmasterworld.com] [/edit]

[Kendel]

Though I have a Yahoo store and have been happy, for some other stores (low volume) I plan to check out ecommercetemplates, in particular to see if I can work their generic cart into some existing designs using a Paypal cart. I'm also impressed with the documentation they provide.

[webtress]

Kendel, you should have not problem setting up with the Generic,that is the one I use for stores when they want their own design. Also Paypal is already integrated in the shopping cart, both Paypal standard and Paypal Websites Payment Pro.

[up23]

i've used oscommerce, and it's a bit long to customize. there are many works based on it (x-cart, zen cart, cre loaded) that makes customizing easier.

[ddregallo]

I use SquirrelCart. It's a good cart IMO. Customization is made easy through the use of themes and templates. It's also not too expensive.

</dan>

[HighConversions]

I would recommend a custom made cart. You'll end up eventually going that route if your site's succesful anyways.