Ecommerce Suggestions?

0xym0r0n

Well-known member
I'd really love something like Xenforo - I mean easy add-ons and easy styling.
I haven't really run into a simple Ecommerce cart... or at least as simple as XenForo...

I'm trying to find a new solution for one of my online stores. We offer 1000s of products and have at least 20+ categories. Some products can be placed in multiple categories.

I'm absolutely fine with paying for a software.
Any experience you have please share :)
 
I'd really love something like Xenforo - I mean easy add-ons and easy styling.
I haven't really run into a simple Ecommerce cart... or at least as simple as XenForo...

I'm trying to find a new solution for one of my online stores. We offer 1000s of products and have at least 20+ categories. Some products can be placed in multiple categories.

I'm absolutely fine with paying for a software.
Any experience you have please share :)


Your entirely right, there isn't anything as simple as XenForo.

In basic terms it goes

Enterprise Level -------------- Generic Stores ------------ Hack n dash+SaaS
Magento -------------------- oscommerce + forks ----------- wordpress carts etc


The problem is, magento is huge and combersome, it does everything but my god working with it can drive you insane. Having said that the flexability it grants you is brilliant, the problem is you have the flexibility but you have to drag all the dead weight with it.

Oscommerce + its forks are simply dated. Whenever you go to a site run by it you can tell right away and it just feels second rate. People can do a good job of dolling it up, but unless you want to spend mega bucks, it always feels like a dated shop.

The hackndash and SaaS solutions often work well if your looking to sell a minority product, but offers no real workability for long term sustainability.


I would love to start up my own shopping cart system, no joke, I feel I have a lot of experience across the market with them and know what the end user wants as well as what the designers and sysadmins want. But I also know the limitations, setting up and managing such a project is no small task and requires a lot of forethought.
 
*le sad face*

Yeah went with XCart a long time ago just based on how easy it is to place the products in multiple categories. The styling system was deceivingly simple... Though reading and reading again it's just all so confusing to me.

If you ever get into that I'd gladly group fund it and beta test ^___^ I've put a a fair few carts and I've always been on a search for a better cart.

Magneto was too much for me. Loved the options but when I have to train someone else to maintain and update it when I'm not around... it's not normal employee friendly? IDK I probably just need to have the boss hire more computer savvy people.

That aside I just needed something simpler to work with. So when my boss says "we need a new shopping cart for *this new company*" I can put something out at a reasonable price and reasonable time. Or when they want something added. I want an easy add-on system.

I also use oscommerce and zencart right now. I am beginning to like ZenCart a bit more that oscommerce. You're right about it looking dated though :\
 
*le sad face*

Yeah went with XCart a long time ago just based on how easy it is to place the products in multiple categories. The styling system was deceivingly simple... Though reading and reading again it's just all so confusing to me.

If you ever get into that I'd gladly group fund it and beta test ^___^ I've put a a fair few carts and I've always been on a search for a better cart.

Magneto was too much for me. Loved the options but when I have to train someone else to maintain and update it when I'm not around... it's not normal employee friendly? IDK I probably just need to have the boss hire more computer savvy people.

That aside I just needed something simpler to work with. So when my boss says "we need a new shopping cart for *this new company*" I can put something out at a reasonable price and reasonable time. Or when they want something added. I want an easy add-on system.

To be honest i've been looking for a project to sink my teeth into recently. Maybe i'll speak to some people who I know are interested and see if its something viable and sustainable.

And yes, Magento is enterprise software, and the person running it needs to be properly trained. An example of one I did a while back is www.elonex.com
 
I have no need for a forum AND shopping cart. I've never really run into a successful community/shopping cart for tangible products.
Software is a different thing since a lot more support is required.

I'd rather pay $140-$300 for a shopping cart that is as good to ecommerce as xenforo is to discussion boards.

This is outside of xenforo for me, but I felt a lot of people here have experience in this matter. Not to mention they know exactly what I want when I say "as easy as XenForo"

I can't justify paying $140 for an unused discussion board and renewing it yearly for just one add-on. Especially if that add-on may not have the continued support. I've seen a lot of developers come and go. I need that security... lol
 
On a side note about Magneto, it is indeed the rocket ship of shopping carts but it is a massive resource hog too. That said, if your going to use a host for this rather then your own server, be sure to go with a company like myself or URLjet that focuses on forum and other high resource applications. Going with a generic vanilla host like the million on WHT that promise you the world for 99 cents will just result in a very slow site once you have a few hundred products.
 
I have used CS-Cart since it began many years ago and being one of the start up customers I get free upgrades for life. It uses smarty templates and has just about every bell and whistle you would want in a cart system. As much as I have blended it into my XF site I haven't got an integrated registration/login system done:

http://www.clearprop.com.au/
 
To be honest i've been looking for a project to sink my teeth into recently. Maybe i'll speak to some people who I know are interested and see if its something viable and sustainable.

Would be an awesome thing with you doing it Slavik!

I want to list about 10 items (services)
user can select more than one
total to pay
pass to paypal (google checkout would be nice)
payment confirmation
payment confirmation can be checked on a link on memberlist viewable by admin. Or some way - search - I can check who has paid.
 
I've been running on OpenCart store along side my forum for the last 3 years. It's very easy to use, and have also got my wife's shop using it as well
Link below
Z22SE Shop

May have been mentioned already, but the fact that your "Forums" link in menu bar, takes you to a page that you need to click on and then go to forums... defeating.

Nice site though. :)
 
Magento allows for scalability and plenty of customisation which I feel is really important for many businesses. Check out this store that runs on Magento,

www.baked.sg

It's a beautiful simplistic site which has has some key features you would want on an e-commerce site, like the categorisation refine toolbar, ajax add-to cart, static images CDN, etc. All this seems really possible with Magento, where you can tweak and refine stuff according to your needs, not constrained by generic e-commerce software.
 
May have been mentioned already, but the fact that your "Forums" link in menu bar, takes you to a page that you need to click on and then go to forums... defeating.

Nice site though. :)
Yeah, I know about that, but we have a lot of customers who don't go near our forum, so it's not a big deal.
 
Has any of you seen Prestashop? I've played around with it a bit and it looks better than the other options out there. Not that I've never actually launched a live shop with it though.
 
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