Ecommerce with Site Management

staceman · #1 (**permalink**) 03-29-2006, 11:43 AM

I have more and more customers asking me for ecommerce sites. I am currently working with one of my designers on a choice of shopping cart systems to offer our clients and allow us to host the sites. The biggest complaint I have from my clients, as most are small businesses, is that they want to be able to add, remove and edit products without having to pay a designer each time to do this. They don't mind paying for the design and some basic maintenance, but do not want to be nickel-and-dimed to death. Is there a shopping cart system that would allow this? My designer has always suggested Yahoo's system to his clients for this exact reason, but they do all the hosting and can cost almost $100 a month. Any suggestions out there as an alternative?

StevenAllen · #2 (**permalink**) 03-29-2006, 02:49 PM

A basic Yahoo site can be as little as half the amount you noted. If you contact SBC now AT&T they will give you an additional discount as well.

staceman · #3 (**permalink**) 03-29-2006, 02:54 PM

Thanks! I will definately look into that, but I am still interested if there is another option out there that we can offer our clients and host ourselves.

sub_kovert · #4 (**permalink**) 03-29-2006, 06:59 PM

All 'off the shelf' carts offer this functionality. My cart of choice is Cactushop http://www.cactushop.com/ - probably not the cheapest but it is easy to setup and customise. You should check out the 'sticky' list of shopping carts on this forum

cyanide · #5 (**permalink**) 03-30-2006, 03:33 AM

I agree.
Most carts seem to have the funcionality of uploading and configuring new products, etc....

What the client will have to realize is that there will be some kind of learning curve. Which ofcourse is the trade-off, if they don't want to pay to have it done.

iwebgeek · #6 (**permalink**) 03-30-2006, 02:46 PM

Miva Merchant, osCommerce, Interchange, Agora, etc...

These are just handful of carts that are user friendly.

osCommerce, Interchange, and Agora are free. Most webhosts will install them for you free of charge.

I highly recommend Miva. It costs about $995 ish for a license but it's very well worth the price.

If you don't want to spend that much on a shopping cart, then I recommend osCommerce, Interchange, or ZenCart.

bigaussie · #7 (**permalink**) 04-14-2006, 11:51 AM

We have been using ShopSite Pro on many sites lately. Template based system, but can also add eCommerce to an existing site. Monthly payment of US$60 for the Pro for unlimited everything, or about $35 for the Manager version with a limit of 100 products. www.ShopSite.com