Advice on e-commerce sites sought

[JohnDawlings]

I work for a medical research charity. In addition to our research we also sell biological cell lines in Australia and overseas. We are looking for an open source e-commerce platform to improve the visibility of the products we sell. Being a niche market with a rather unusual product line, we need a few bits of functionality that are unusual (as well as many that would be met by pretty much any e-commerce platform). Specifically we are looking for a platform that will enable us to:

1. Have a large number of user defined attributes for a product. These attributes would be of a descriptive nature (eg this cell line...) rather than a sub-category (eg small, medium or large if talking about shirts). These attributes would need to be searchable.

2. These fields, being descriptive and scientific, may well be very large containing hundreds (if not thousands) of characters.

3. As our sales volume is very low and very much tailored to the individual, we do not want to display prices nor do we want to allow people to buy on-line. We simply want people to be able to see our products and then phone us to discuss an order. So we would want to be able to ‘turn off’ any shopping cart and credit card functionality.

I would be grateful for feedback from other e-commerce users on packages that might meet these rather unusual bits of functionality.

My thanks in advance.

[JohnDawlings]

A slight mistake in my earlier post and as I cannot see how to edit it, I will re-post.

I work for a medical research charity. In addition to our research we also sell biological cell lines in Australia and overseas. We are looking for an open source e-commerce platform to improve the visibility of the products we sell. Being a niche market with a rather unusual product line, we need a few bits of functionality that are unusual (as well as many that would be met by pretty much any e-commerce platform). Specifically we are looking for a platform that will enable us to:

1. Have a large number of user defined attributes for a product. These attributes would be of a descriptive nature (eg this cell line...) rather than a sub-category (eg small, medium or large if talking about shirts). These attributes would need to be searchable.

2. These fields, being descriptive and scientific, may well be very large containing hundreds (if not thousands) of characters.

3. As our sales volume is very low and very much tailored to the individual, we do not want to display prices nor do we want to allow people to buy on-line. We simply want people to be able to see our products, use a shopping cart to identify products they want and use that to generate an e-mail enquiry to us. So we would want to be able to ‘turn off’ any credit card functionality.

I would be grateful for feedback from other e-commerce users on packages that might meet these rather unusual bits of functionality.

My thanks in advance.

[SteveGerencser]

The best thing you can do is install the most popular ones such as OpenCart and then test it yourself to see if it will meet your specific needs. But, you may find yourself missing out on one or two things that you want/need no matter which cart you like. Since there is no CC processing or sales tracking it might be easier and better to have a custom software built for your exact needs.

[williamc]

I would have to agree with Steve on this one that a custom solution based upon your exact needs is probably going to be best. Going by your stated requirements, I highly doubt you are going to find an acceptable system from the off-the-shelf ecom solutions.

[JohnDawlings]

Thank you, Steve and William. I think you may well be right. I am hopeful that one of the existing open source packages may be able to meet our rather idiosyncratic needs and am also posting on several of their sites to see if anyone claims that they can do it. If not, our fallback position may well be to take an open source system as a basis and work on that to carry out the necessary tailoring.

Thank you again for taking the time to reply.

[williamc]

Not a problem at all, let us know how it goes.

[Gorge Frandis]

The most wonderful thing you can use is definitely add the best models just like OpenCart and after that test drive it you to ultimately find if perhaps it can connect with your certain demands. Nonetheless, you can definitely find you missing out on several issues that you actually want/need no matter which island you wish. While there is virtually no CLOSED CIRCUIT producing and also profits administering it would be a lot easier plus improved to undertake a made to order program made for your personal correct demands.

[JohnDawlings]

Thank you, Gorge.