comersus

is it any good?

[gorillacyclist]

I used comersus about 2 years ago as a basis off an enterprise solution for a survival manufacturer. Needles to say I found the cart incredibly complicated to customise, the database relations made it a nightmare to update from one version to another. This was necessary as they constantly release new carts to fix bugs, however as I was writting customisation this caused major problems. Admitedly I was out of my depth having done a 1 year postgraduate course in computers from a biology degree.

Any way the whole thing was a nightmare. I am considering going back to do some e-commerce but for small business, and am a bit nervous of using comersus again. Addmitedly I needed a great deal from the cart b2b as well as b2c, affiliate marketing, prefileed carts for some users complete worldwide shipping up to containers loads etc, and a archaic pricing structure for business customers.
A standard SME would be far simpler. just wanted to know if anyone was willing to give an opinion on this cart as it is hardly mentioned here on webmaster. just references to oscommerce and mals shopping cart

Would really apreciate some feedback from someone with technical knowledge of cart implementation esp commersus

Paul

[Essex_boy]

Ive never used but I have Mals and Osc.....

Why do you think they get mentioned so often? Its because they are good.

Forget Comersus and go with OSC.

[gorillacyclist]

Thanks for the advice, am seriously considering it esp as no capital outlay.

never used PHP, can you install on xp?

[toddski07]

Paul-

I was in the same boat a couple years ago and began using Comersus for a client. It was difficult to modify and just seemed to be a little more thrown together as more features were introduced. I'm not saying it is a bad product...I just found it not so friendly based on my skills at the time.

Instead...I dropped the project and started over using a shopping cart from a company called Candypress. Don't be fooled by the low price...it is a good piece of software code. It is written in ASP/VBScript and you can use an Access or SQL database. I found it to be very well coded and extremely easy to modify. The company offers great tech support in their forum and there is a pretty active community to help out as well.

Just thought I'd share that with you.
Todd

[thegremlin]

Hi Paul-

Hey i was surprised to read your message about comersus, i actually had no trouble setting up at all, and i'm not all that technical. the forum was very helpful too. i had no problem having my questions answered.

also, since you mention candypress, i heard that's actually a copy of comersus and they had a hard time with resellers and customers because of this.

my advice is you go for comersus or intershop cart. just my 2 cents ;)

best of luck,
tg

[toddski07]

thegremlin-

Welcome to WebmasterWorld. Nice first post! LOL!

also, since you mention candypress, i heard that's actually a copy of comersus and they had a hard time with resellers and customers because of this.

Gee....I'd sure like to know where you heard that...because it is NOT true. What a joke! They have not had a hard time with resellers and customers because of this. I have owned both of these systems and they are nothing alike. Look at the code...see how they function.

Candypress was developed by a guy from Canada and was recently sold to a company in Iowa. You can read about it in their forums. If you have heard any rumblings about resellers lately that was because the new company is enforcing the copyrights of the candypress software where a few resellers were packaging it as their own product and marketing it.

Like I said...if you have "heard" differently...I'd sure like to know where you heard that so I can be informed if I am wrong. Which is completely possible...but I have a tough time believing it in this situation.

Thanks.
Todd

[sun818]

Hey Paul - Mal's is a remotely hosted shopping cart so none of the advanced features you are looking for will come with the cart. But many third-party developers have created custom scripts that interact with the remote cart that will do what you want. They have a forum you can search through for third-party solutions. Also a general web search with Mal's in it will turn up other scripts.

Mal's what I current use, but I am looking to switch because my shipping options are becoming too complex for this cart to handle. I'm currently looking at AmeriCart, another remotely hosted solution.

And I am also looking at X-Cart (or LiteCommerce) which is similar to osCommerce, in that it is a full eCommerce package. I still would like to buy/pay for one that can handle order tracking/history, customer relations, and RMAs (return merchandise).