Looking To Upgrade Shopping Cart - Options?

[olimits7]

Hi,

I'm currently using a customized osCommerce shopping cart, but I'm looking to upgrade to a better shopping cart.

I'm looking for a shopping cart that includes all the bells & whistles I need, and if it doesn't include some features that I need I would have the option to "custom code" new features into the shopping cart.

Some features I'm looking for are:
- I prefer if it's programmed in PHP, but other programming languages would work as well.
- Options to add/delete either manually one-by-one or by a batch file new products through admin.
- Works easily with UPS, FedEx, DHL, USPS shipping carriers.
- Provides tracking information either under the customer's account or by email.
- Options to easily update shipping costs and add a % mark-up if need be.
- Works easily with Paypal, Verifone PAYWarePC, Authorize.NET, etc.
- Option to batch import vendor pricing and inventory information.
- Option to apply % mark-up to vendor pricing.
- Can easily generate data feeds for PriceGrabber, Google Base (Products), Shopzilla, etc.
- Includes a "dropshipping" module that will allow me to tag certain products as dropship and would work together with EDI to send to vendors for fulfillment.
- Includes a customer service email ticket system that will work together with customer orders.
- Option to create sale incentives like discount coupons, free shipping, daily deals, etc.
- Includes a "newsletter" module that will allow me to contact opt-in customers with sale incentives.
- Will allow me to do some customized programming to add new features.

Thank you,

olimits7

[morehawes]

I'm looking to upgrade to a better shopping cart

Hi, are there any major problems with your current osCommerce install? I guess it depends how you define "better". I have used osCommerce alot in the past and although the code is dated and isn't without it's faults there are modules for alot of the features above and where not you have the ability to custom code them.

If you don't have any major issues at the moment personally I would favour investing the time upgrading your current cart instead of a complete overhaul. You could spend all your time customising a cart just to get it to the same level as your current one. One great thing about osCommerce is that it scales very well when dealing with a large number of products - the same can not be said for other, even modern carts. Incremental changes you make to your current site would also prevent issues with the search engines that a overhaul could incur.

That said I have heard good things about VirtueMart for Joomla and Magento - though as a developer I haven't had the best of experience with the later in the past.

[olimits7]

I like osCommerce and it does work okay for now, but I feel it's almost like a "used car" put together by parts from all different car manufacturers.

I would like to find an "all-in-one" shopping cart that has all features I'm looking for already included into the shopping cart from the get go; almost like a "fully loaded" car model...lol.

Thanks, I'll take a closer look at the VirtueMart shopping cart!

I've been taking a look at Netsuite, Volusion, Vcommerce, etc...

Any other recommendations for shopping cart software?

Also, on a side note; does anyone know what shopping cart is being used for the "diapers.com" website? Or if this is an in-house built shopping cart they created?

Thank you,

olimits7

[gpilling]

I would avoid Netsuite and Interspire. I would look at some other template options if you are already running OSCommerce. Some people out there on the interwebs can do amazing things with that platform for design. I would bet that you could get a oscommerce site to look similar to the diapers.com site for a few hundred dollars.

[steveseaton]

I would recommend CREloaded. Thier product is great out of the box. It is also extremely customizable.

Thanks
Steve

[edited by: lorax at 5:51 pm (utc) on Sep 11, 2010]

[gpilling]

Welcome @steveseaton to WebmasterWorld.

I have two things to note:
1. Creloaded is a variant of OSCommerce, with a lot of popular addons preinstalled. His cart experience wouldn't change much from what he has now.
2. You are not allowed to drop links to your site like that on this forum.

[morehawes]

I would bet that you could get a oscommerce site to look similar to the diapers.com site for a few hundred dollars.

Agreed - a decent templating contribution (like STS) and a few tweaks here and there could be all you need to completely transform your cart. I have built a few sites in oscommerce that make it very hard to even tell what shopping cart was used.

[Luxoria]

Take the time to look at osCMax 2.1. The beta is being released in about a week. The current version 2.0.25 is loaded with features and 2.1 will be even better with one page checkout, updated SEO, overhauled BTS, jquery slideshow, super etc.

I have put on hold developing my cart so I can grab 2.1 and be set for a few years. Call me a fanboy, but from testing several open source carts osCMax blows them all out of the water. I went from installing about 14 mods using the sparse oscommerce version to installing only 2 mods using osCMax. The coding is a little bit different but not by much and it's a good different, IMO.

[samc]

Magento has a lot of great features and some great extensions but it's not for everyone. I like it compared to a half million dollar system but..

You have a lot to think about and getting off OSC is a great start. It's not very secure any longer even with all the upgrades to the core you have kept up on :) It's a trap with all the old extensions.. now we are back to having to password protect the admin directory.. renaming it .. Etc. Run Away!

Volusion is not a software, but a platform (like Big Commerce, Shopify, Miva, Yahoo store), so you are asking several questions about a shopping cart. What is your sales volume? How much IT staff do you have? Do you have time to manage everything if you are a one person shop?
Applications you have to host vs. a hosted solution address different needs. Hosted is not going to be as flexible as your own server but then you pay for that in your time.

[Luxoria]

yes, samc brings up a most important point, sales volume. I like oscmax because I am a small low volume startup. However if I was a 500k - 1m startup I would be looking for something more beefy with a 24/7 support and easy to outsource or hire coders for custom mods.

[enigma1]

From the features you state my opinion is to stay with osC and customize it. Because no matter what cart you take on you will need to customize it after all and you're already familiar with your site so it's easier to upgrade it and add more features.

The main advantage of osC it's tiny, open source and works with different servers and all browser configurations.

[machine11]

If your site has been online for a while and ranks for various keywords and gets decent search engine traffic - I suggest you stick with osc or upgrade it to creloaded but please keep the urls intact. If it's a pretty new site and feel a change is needed - take a glance at cs-cart, pinnacle cart,x-cart and shopsite.(Im assuming you want a self hosted solution)

Cheers,
Alain