Shopping cart recommendations please

[carju1]

I currently manage a retail on-line shop for a client with nearly 1000 items on their shop and Cube cart is starting to struggle to be usable for management of the products, updates etc.

I am looking to buy some commercial software that will be better for both me and them to use to manage the shop and to do things like % price increases quick product options etc. So I'm after your recommendations of the products you all use.

Lots of their products have multiple options that change the price which is a pain in cube cart so it needs to be good at that. Often one manufacturer will increase price so a facility to increas by a % in one subcategory would be nice rather than adding it to each product by hand.

It must be good for the search engines so pages that have keywords and end honda_civic_battery.htm are prefered to one that ends 102834756_8756_948.php. The users also add products and manage the orders so it must be simple to use back end not require a computer degree to add a blue widget.

It must meet all the normal requirements for a good cart like paypal and worldpay options, easy for the shopper to use, easy to customise (HTML here not super C++ programming) and install on the shared server. Price is not the major issue here.

So please give me your recomendations and why they are good and if possible a shop you have build in/with it.

Thanks

Carju1

[TrafficProducer]

Online Payment, Shopping Carts, etc

Sorry nothing to recommend :)

[bloxar]

Hello carju1,

It seems you need custom software, rather than a canned solution.

regards,

www.sellbuy1.com

..

[ronbaker1]

I've had a lot of success with Miva Merchant, www.miva.com . Miva Merchant is a full function online store solution, that offers a product catalog as well as shopping cart services.

If you only need a shopping cart, it's no match for your requirement. But if you want a robust online store solution, it works great.

Ron Baker
www.apex-systems.net
www.hilton-head-property.com
www.hilton-head-island-real-estate.biz

[tcustomgolf]

I use zencart (www.zencart.com)...a freebie but pretty powerful. Can customize each product pretty extensively. See my site below. I'm not a wiz either, and it does take a litte work. It does use php and a sql db back end though, but you can customize descriptions, etc. with html code.

[carju1]

Originally Posted by ronbaker1

I've had a lot of success with Miva Merchant, www.miva.com . Miva Merchant is a full function online store solution, that offers a product catalog as well as shopping cart services.

If you only need a shopping cart, it's no match for your requirement. But if you want a robust online store solution, it works great.

Thanks Ron, I probably should have added to my original post NO Miva :) I inherited a Miva setup 3? years ago with another client and I found it very powerful but support was a joke and I just plain didn't like it I suppose. Perhaps I should look at it again with an open mind but......

Julian

[carju1]

Originally Posted by tcustomgolf

I use zencart (www.zencart.com)...a freebie but pretty powerful. Can customize each product pretty extensively. See my site below. I'm not a wiz either, and it does take a litte work. It does use php and a sql db back end though, but you can customize descriptions, etc. with html code.

I looked at Zen Cart (I have a shortlist of 3 but I'm not telling as my mind is not made up and will be influenced by posts here). Must admit I thought I may be able to handle it but I really didn't think the admin section would be usable by my clients and if its more complex than a Word doc then its a problem.

Thanks
Julian

[gowilkes]

Unfortunately, any of these programs you're looking at are going to be a cookie-cutter, and what you can do with it will be limited. IMHO, you will ALWAYS be better off with something more customized to your needs.

I don't know if it's against the forum rules to say this, and if so I apologize in advance. But as a web designer, I've created custom websites that the owner can completely manage themselves for less than $2000, including a shopping cart and catalog program.

Please know that I'm giving that price as a point of reference, not as a solicitation or anything like that.

[goxford]

You may need help setting it up but after that it is very E-Z to update or add product to see look and feel go to http://cooksdream.com

[toolameforyou]

Count my vote toward a custom solution. It's what we had to do when Yahoo's cart solution got too confining.

I've had pretty good luck with oscommerce in the past, but nothing beats a solution tailor made. You said money wasn't an obstacle right? Make a detailed wish list and send it off to some design/programming companies for bids. This is what we did and I've never regretted the initial $$$ hurdle!

[Easywebdev]

If I were you I would steer clear of Zencart. Whilst I applaud their intentions in providing free software and having looked at the code I could not recommend it.

There are major vulnerabilities that may not yet have come to light but are there. I looked into it as a solution for a client and after half an hour perusing the code I ditched it.

A product with promise but not for a solution a client would pay me to provide.

[danners02]

The guys in the office across the hallway have a very robust and easy to use CMS with shopping cart add-on - they will also customise for individual requirements if necessary - not cheap but solidly built (PHP,XML,XSLT) and easy to use.

http://www.featurecreep.com/products/ - CMS
http://www.featurecreep.com/products/features - add ons (incl. shop)

As a side issue - did you find cubecart worked fine up to 10000 products?

[sub_kovert]

I use Cactushop http://www.cactushop.com/ - A couple of weeks ago V6 was released - this is fully css and XHTML strict and has the features you need. A couple of sites I have made using V5.1 are http://www.johnleachpottery.co.uk/ and http://www.mtmc.co.uk/

[carju1]

Originally Posted by danners02

As a side issue - did you find cubecart worked fine up to 10000 products?

Thanks Danners I'll have a look at featurecreep. I have no problems with Cube Cart for a small shop. I'm running V3 for another client and its great and I'd start any shop off in it if I knew it would be <1000 products for the first 12 months as its free.

The customer side of the shop is fine even with big number of products and it works well and fairly quickly. Where it falls down (especiall v2) is on products with multiple options, its a real pain. Its other problem even with 1 product is it doesn't product search engine friendly pages or URL's. Other than that a great start up cart

Carju1

[ambassador]

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Jul 29, 2006

As is suggested by your post, you prefer carts that are not shackled to a particular hosting service. There are two such carts - currently vaporware as far as their commercial availability is concerned - that I would recommend watching.

Today, the two carts do indeed have real, present-day working versions. However, the existing commercially available version of one of the carts is presently chained to its developer's hosting service, and the existing commercially available version of the other cart is - in my opinion - not so spectacular. The two carts are Apple Pie cart and Click cart Pro.

If my understanding is correct, the new - I recommend watching these - versions of both carts will likely be available later this year. One of the carts, a variant of the existing Apple Pie cart - a version unshackled from the developer's hosting service - will probably be one of the best carts from an SEO perspective. The other cart, a variant of the existing Click Cart Pro cart - a version that will be much more robust - will probably also be an excellent choice.

Of course, this "watch these two carts" suggestion is based solely upon this author's communications with the associated developers, and upon this author's own cursory review of quite a few shopping carts.

If, as you have stated, money really is no issue for you in this matter, a custom solution may be the best option. However, the custom solution road is not without its own potholes. By definition, a custom solution means that you will be employing the services of a programmer, even if the programmer is you or your business. Thus, you will want to secure the services of a competent programmer - all who call themselves programmers are not competent programmers. Further, if you have not already discovered it, you will find that even when you successfully identify a competent programmer, the programmer may not already know how to properly address the specific factors associated with well constructed, commercial-grade shopping carts (e.g. factors such as security, SEO, scalability, etc.). Thus, it cannot be assumed that even a custom solution will automatically be the "best" solution unless an appropriate amount of YOUR time - even if you are not the programmer - and your dollars are focused on the project.

Of course, given the same dedication of time and dollars needed to ensure a proper custom solution, a modified off-the-shelf solution can be a prudent approach. If you are like most people whose time and financial resources really do need to be considered in the "What shopping cart should I use?" decision, then it may be helpful to first establish a budget for both your time and your dollars. Then, after a realistic budget is established, the budget constraints (i.e. your time and your money) will help point you toward the direction most appropriate for your situation.

One might say, "All I want is an exceptionally easy to use, perfectly secure, absolutely search engine friendly, adequately-featured shopping cart that I can use anywhere." As strange as it may seem, it is presently not so trival to address that desire with a list of qualified shopping cart candidates. In fact, it is with a fair bit of compromise to that desire that this "watch these two carts" suggestion is offered.


Ambassador
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[A. Smith]

In a previous business, we used Mal's e-cart. Our products had many options each. We did not have over 1,000 products, though.

Also, since you're in the UK, and most of the carts are geared towards the US, you might have to pay close attention to how taxes are done. The US have no VAT.

[ScottishBob]

Hello carju1,

We have used Actinic Developer for several years, and I can recommend it highly (www.actinic.co.uk/). The Developer edition is designed for those who work on multiple client sites, and there are less expensive versions available for simpler requirements. We have used it to develop the following sites: Celtic-Jewellery-Shop.co.uk and Celtic-Music-Site.co.uk. Actinic is a desktop tool which compiles html pages locally before uploading them to the host. It is very customisable using only HTML, and there are 3rd party tools available to fill in any gaps.

In addition, we are currently evaluating Volusion (Volusion.com), which is a hosted solution, but looks excellent.

regards

[santiago.demierre]

http://authorize.net/
check this lower rates great service
Santiago
www.learn-spanish-guide.com

[carju1]

Thanks all,

keep the info / recommends coming I am looking at each cart recommended. Not interested in a shopping service its a 6 figure t/o on the shop so the sort of charges most service carts charge is a killer and I don't want to seperat the hosting of the shop from the rest of the web site.

Julian