Shopping cart - which to go for?

[furman]

Hi,
I have read several posts regarding this topic - I have looked at quite a few carts - but I still don't know which to use :(

I currently use CandyPress which is good but not exactly what I want. I had to add code (which for me is difficult) to allow the system to accept UK Switch debit card payment. It does not allow the customer or admin to change order details (qty, delete order line etc) except the status. It does not offer different templates - I am not very good at webpage design or coding so I find it difficult to customise.

I considered Actinic but its horrible and costs a bit more than I would like to spend as its for a business that may not take off. I am looking for something under $200 (£160ish) but preferably under $100 (£70ish) as I can buy a few to test if they are cheap.

I prefer ASP as I find PHP difficult to understand and not being a very good programmer I don't need the headache :)

I tried to install OSCommerce but I kept getting errors and it didn't work so I left it.

Some of the stores I have looked at - mostly from Aspin, Developerdex and hotscripts - are:
www.x-cart.com/
Line9.com
www.webcortex.com/site2000/
salescart.com/
Candypress.com - installed and working
www.aceflex.com/

I want to use the store to sell a variety of things, small electricals, books, stationary, CDs etc.

I know its been asked loads of times but I would appreciate some advice. I will try to put together a list of features I would like - I know that I am not being flexible with the money but I will condiser anything that fulfils my requirements.

Thanks
Furhan

[edited by: TallTroll at 3:29 pm (utc) on May 29, 2003]
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[Craig_F]

I haven't tried it yet but I've seen others here recommend Cyber Strong EShop. It's asp and can generate SE friendly pages. I plan to try it within the year. I think it is $150 US. Looks pretty good.

almost didn't notice -- welcome to WebmasterWorld furman!

[threecrans]

I second EShop. We've had it in place for over a year and I find it to be very stable and very easy to customize (the ASP script is logically organized and well-commented).

[toddski07]

I too have searched out a lot of ASP shopping cart programs over the past year. I currently use Candypress and feel it is probably one of better products out there for the money.

I did purchase Cyberstrong EShop and played around with it as well. While Eshop is a nice program I felt it was MUCH harder to adapt and alter than Candypress. The Eshop code is pretty intense since all HTML and ASP code is wrapped in a "WriteLine" type function and therefore most of the code is VBscript stuff. Tough to thoroughly explain what I mean but I was like "Holy Cow" when trying to figure out how to customize different layouts and visual aspects. The code is encrypted until you pay for a valid license so I did not realize this coding style prior to purchasing it. Also, Eshop uses session variables quite heavily as opposed to using the database for storing information while shopping. Pros and cons for the different method of shopping carts...I realize this fact. I'm not saying Eshop is bad by any means...just different than what I expected. Plus their user forum is pretty dead compared to other cart programs/software.

Anyway...just wanted to share my two cents in regards to the items talked about. As an FYI I also paid over $400 for a cart by comersus and let's just say it is not being used. It does have quite a few features but the code was a little too disjointed for my liking.

Thanks.
Todd

[TimmyMagic]

Click Cart Pro. It costs $99. I have bought it but yet to have it setup. In the process of doing it, so cannot comment on how good it is. They have a busy forum on their site which will help to answer many questions.

[Fighting Falcon]

Try BazaarBuilder :)

<snip>

It doesn't require any knowledge of PHP or ASP. Its low cost and can be configured to suit any website design. Includes Order processing, sales report, stock control, sales tax handling, and much more.

Good luck!

[edited by: TallTroll at 3:28 pm (utc) on May 29, 2003]
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[grifter]

Rolling your own in php is the most fun. Yes there's a learning curve, but you get the flexibility to optimize for SE's in a way that suits you.

[lgn]

I started with a free cart from Matt's Script Archive over 5 years ago. I think it was webstore by Selena Sol. I have made countless modifications over the years, and it does not look anything like i started out with. But I got what I want.

So the best cart, is the one you can change or modify yourself.

[jsbeads]

I've been using VP-ASP for about three year now. Runs on Windows or Unix/Linux w/ Chilisoft. It is pure ASP. Very happy with it, but I did a lot of code changes.

If you have trouble codeing www.yourvirtualstore.net/
has several skins for this product.

[edited by: TallTroll at 3:30 pm (utc) on May 29, 2003]
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[Harley_m]

I am currently building a asp website for a software company - and was looking seriously into using NetEcommerce as the shopping system...

looks good - anyone got any comments?

www.dotnetecommerce.com/products.htm

Harley

[edited by: TallTroll at 3:31 pm (utc) on May 29, 2003]
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[furman]

I am still searching for a shopping cart.
The one I am looking at now is:
www.erol.co.uk

Very customisble - built in templates etc.

Its a bit more expensive than I wanted @ £389 - just over $500 I think - but it has a lot of features.

Anyone had any experience with Erol?
Thanks
Fur

[edited by: TallTroll at 3:32 pm (utc) on May 29, 2003]
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[bunltd]

As TimmyMagic suggested: ClickCartPro - it's not ASP, but ClickCartPro is very nice, written in Perl. Making changes in Perl is pretty easy - the code is easily followed and well commented. It will work with MySQL, PostgreSQL, MSSQL, or .csv files on a Linux/*nix/Windows host giving you a lot of options for managing the data.

Easy to set-up, flexible/customizable, has a good forum. I've set up half a dozen sites using it in the last few months, bonus is the cost, $99. There's also ongoing development - they're always adding to the features.

LisaB

[mat]

Another one to toss into the mix is Squirrelcart - PHP/mySQL (hence the name -geddit?). A new(ish) kid on the block, it's cheap, very customisable via css and templates, somewhat lacking in instructions, but a pretty quick response can be had on the forum.

Just used it on a small site, eventually got it looking just how I wanted. Again, the big plus is the customisation possibilities via hand-rolled themes.

[Edouard_H]

Declining inventory is the feature that sold me on ClickCartPro. I'm just about finished setting it up for a site and it's a great product. Be prepared to delve into perl - I had to code the custom shipping options. The biggest drawback is that it's a resource hog.

ASP-wise, you might check monstercommerce. It's remotely hosted, but I know they were working on a standalone version.

[Essex_boy]

I use oscommerce and love it. Look at Actinic, to pricey and teh rest well they just didnt have the range of features I required.

Oh and it was fre....

[furman]

I had a go with OSCommerce. It was quite good but I don't like having to code bits into the app - there is good support and quite a few mods but for some reason it still feels like a cheap free app. I think I will use it for another store I have planned.

[Essex_boy]

Feels like a free app?'Cos it is maybe? the big price carts feel better because you equate price with quality, which is not the case. Ive bought carts before and paid £££'s which I have wasted with the software not really doing what I want. OScommerce rules.

Oh yeah this will make you laugh, paid $250 for a well known cart system and I phone support twice.

replys - im busy cant you phone back - err Did you make a backup.

At least with OS you can get real help.

[TheWebographer]

Free = No Good?

You mean like MySQL and PHP?

[TimmyMagic]

As I mentioned earlier, I have used Click Cart Pro for my shopping basket system. I have been very suprised at just how easy it is to use. I have no experience in Perl but adding products and categories is really easy.

I paid $99 for it and paid $79 for installation. Unfortunately I could have got round both of these as I switched hosts and my new hosts have it pre-installed on their servers. Oh well.

In fact my new hosts have done the custom skin for me. It looks great. I'm sure there are many good systems out there, but for the price and functions on offer, CCP is superb.

[edited by: TallTroll at 9:38 am (utc) on May 21, 2003]
[edit reason] clean up [/edit]

[Webartist]

I'm also looking for a shopping cart. I have about 20 sites I'm supporting and three so far want shopping carts with anywhere from 10 to 300 items. I'm definitely the kind of guy that likes free programs I can learn and modify. I also need it to be usable for many sites all hosted on one server.

I've seen OSCommerce mentioned a few times. Can those who like it tell me which version or build they like? I saw there were several different builds and versions.

[Essex_boy]

I use OS 2.2, its teh latest.

[aus_dave]

osCommerce has a huge range of mods available and the forums are very useful. There's a learning curve to it but with such a massive user base there's bound to be a payment gateway or shipping mod available for your country, which is a big plus.

You need a stable release (milestone releases such as MS1) and compatible modifications though otherwise the code can break all over the place :).