x-cart

[jadedev]

I have been researching x-cart and I have heard lots of good stuff about it. what do you guys think about it?

What is it like to buy this product from their website? Any problems?

[jdMorgan]

A client recently reported to me that x-cart does not have support for a function that he needed: The ability to modify a product page to indicate that the product is out of stock and cannot be purchased based on the number-in-stock count dropping to zero. He says he spent a lot of time dealing with customers who ordered out-of-stock items because of this. So it cost him time on the phone and the goodwill of several customers.

That's what he told me, and that's all I know about x-cart. If this issue is important to you, be sure to verify it for yourself.

Jim

[jadedev]

do you mean stock in hand is 3 unit and customer seeing there is stock in hand and wants to over say 50 units?

From what I saw on the web site, it apparently will report an item out of stock. I am giving the 30 day trial a whirl.

[jdMorgan]

The specific scenario was that one customer purchased the last item in stock, but then the next customer was able to order that item even though the in-stock count was now zero. The "Buy Now" button on the page was not disabled.

Again, this is a second-hand report, so be sure to test this for yourself.

It is also possible that he was dealing with an older version provided by a third party -- his hosting company.

Jim

[jadedev]

I have just downloaded the latest demo, installing it now.

I am installing it onto the apache server I built last week. I have fire wall up. Will install virus scanner shortly. what else do I need?

[shazer7]

I personally prefer cs-cart over x-cart. CS-Cart comes with a lot of features with x-cart you have to pay for the mods

Drop shipping (N/A at brand X)
Statistics addon is added.
Acceess Restrictions addons is added.
Gift certificates addon is added.
Listmania (N/A at brand X)
Promotion (N/A at brand X)
RMA addon is added.
Reward points ($149.99 at brand X)
Cart and wishlist content viewer is added
Newest Products ($34.99 at brand X)
Testimonials ($34.99 at brand X)
Affiliate Module ($75.35 at brand X)
Feature Comparison ($46.75 at brand X)
Product Configurator ($95.00 at brand X)
Gift Registry ($57.35 at brand X)
Dynamic Image Generator ($55 at brand X)
Wish List, Reviews Viewer ($29.95 at brand X)
Point of Sale / Phone ordering ($145 at brand X)
Recently Viewed products ($25 at brand X)
Reports Manager ($200 at brand X)
Ads/Banner Managment ($100 at brand X)
Froogle export ($40 at brand X)
Skin Swap ($66 at brand X)
News Managment ($99.95 at brand X)
Newslist Manager ($39.95 at brand X)
CMS/Topics Manager (N/A at brand X)
Maxmind Antifraud ($49.99 at brand X)
Batch Product Updating ($59.95 at brand X)
Profit Reports ($49.95 at brand X)
Customers Also Bought ($39.95 at brand X)
MaxMind antifraud ($57.35 at brand X)

[sandyk20]

Not hijacking the topic, but since I am least concerned over out-of-stock items, I am more concerned about a multi-vendor interface for my cart.

I am not planning to sell directly to my customers (since I have an eastablished site), I am only giving and interface to my contacts (dealers of specific products) to directly sell on my site(s) displaying/adding there products.

Is there any other commercial cart script which allows adding multiple vendors?

Thanks

[gomblue]

I've been researching carts. It is clear to me that X-Cart has LOTS of features. More features than any other cart I've found. Go to its website for a detailed list of features.

[lorax]

X-Cart Pro allows for multiple vendors - but you'll need to be more specific about what they can or can't do.

X-Cart is a PHP base off-the-shelf program that is pretty good for the money you spend. That being said, there's room for improvement. It's not easy to modify and once you do, you risk ruining the upgrade/patch ability.

What I like:
Relatively easy to get up and running
Decent categorization and product features
Good support community and direct tech support (even if they are Russian)
Good gateway support
Easy configuration
Relatively easy data import/export

What I Don't like:
Lousy search engine
Site stats share the same db as the catalog - when you gather enough stats, the whole site slows down
Some obvious functionalities are not included - like specific upsells based on product plus many others (see the list above for some)
Language files are a huge pain in the patookus to work with. Little documentation on what variable is used where and for what

I've since abandoned working with X-Cart for the multiple issues I've run into.

[jadedev]

shazer7

I had a look at cs-cart and did the online demo. It feels clumsy. Don't know why, just don't feel smooth? Can this cart be customised to Australia? or do I have to spend endless amount of hours to set the many fields to suit our trade laws?

[jadedev]

I've WAMP, and X_Cart. Runs so slow between pages. Is this because PhP is trying to build the page and updating MySql at the same time?

[ByronM]

X-cart runs fine for me. Which version of the WAMP stack are you running? PHP4 or 5 based?

[shazer7]

The software can be using to build and Australia base website. I sent you a sticky with the URL to one of the sites.

[sandyk20]

Hello lorax,
I agree with your comments above if you have an alternative please let us know or via a PM.

This is very very vital since we are running a business.

[jadedev]

I am using

Win XP Pro SP2

Apache 2.2.6

PHP 5

MySQL 5

[shazer7]

Any shopping cart that you install will require some level of customization. Please be more specific on what type of customization you are taking about is it shipping, Payment, Tax, look of the store, etc.

[jadedev]

Hi shaz,

all those thigs that you mentioned. with x-cart, during installation, you can select country and a lot of deafult stuff already done for me, I don't have to spend time seeting up defaults.