Hello,
I was placed in charge of creating a catalog/shopping cart solution for a company that makes motor brushes and contacts. In other words, tangible items. I was looking for some suggestions on some shopping cart/catalog solutions to use for this company. There are hundreds of items that could be listed, and lots of customers. What kind of open source shopping cart software is available that is easy to customize (add the company logo), and input all of the customer data? Multiple payment methods would also be required. Maybe shipping options could be implemented too. Any ideas?

Thanks,
John

P.S. QuickBooks 2007 Integration would be a plus.

try osCommerce as they have the contributions for integration with QuickBooks software.

http://www.oscommerce.com/community?contributions=&search=QuickBooks&category=all

I second osCommerce that is what I use for all of my clients e-commerce needs.

Justin

Do you think that it would be easy to use for the site admin? In other words, does everything make sense?

I usually include an hour or 2 consulting time to go over the back end section of the site. I also provide my clients with a manual and I'm working on some flash tutorials for the admin area.

Justin

I have tried all the open source carts and there are good points and bad, The biggest problem with them is they aren't always as easy to customize as they say they are. After about 2 years I decided to go with a cart that was professionally designed...This also was a problem because they all say that they are customizable which isn't a lie but the thing they forget to tell you is you have to really know php well in order to work with them. Then once you find one that is truly customable you run into a problem with updates. It seems that each time you update you have to do your whole design all over again.
I finally found one I like because it does everything it says and is very user friendly, not to mention easy to customize and oh yeah, when you update your design isn't affected because they have designed the updates so that you just click a update button in the admin and it does everything for you.
I like it so much I have suggested it on here several times already, it's Avactis Shopping cart.
http://www.avactis.com/ (http://www.avactis.com/)
I also asked about QuickBooks 2007 Integration and was told it would be added sometime in the near future.
This cart is a great cart and worth every penny ....
Just my opinion...

Ron

I have tried all the open source carts and there are good points and bad, The biggest problem with them is they aren't always as easy to customize as they say they are. After about 2 years I decided to go with a cart that was professionally designed...This also was a problem because they all say that they are customizable which isn't a lie but the thing they forget to tell you is you have to really know php well in order to work with them. Then once you find one that is truly customable you run into a problem with updates. It seems that each time you update you have to do your whole design all over again.
I finally found one I like because it does everything it says and is very user friendly, not to mention easy to customize and oh yeah, when you update your design isn't affected because they have designed the updates so that you just click a update button in the admin and it does everything for you.
I like it so much I have suggested it on here several times already, it's Avactis Shopping cart.

http://www.avactis.com/ (http://www.avactis.com/)

I also asked about QuickBooks 2007 Integration and was told it would be added sometime in the near future.
This cart is a great cart and worth every penny ....
Just my opinion...

Ron

i would recommend x-cart i have worked with osCommerce and found it lacking in a few areas like product addition and control its not very bad for free but if you can afford to pay my recommendation is x-cart has a 30 day free trial if you wanted to play with it

I think OScommerce is fine because that have a lot of contributions that help you to customise.Also I like to use X cart it is also.`

Is there a such thing as a GOOD free shopping cart? If any one knows of on let me know. Thanks!

I would use cubecart as i have found it to be the easyer one to use. and you can change the way it looks

Although not free, I'm in the process of switching to Volusion from VirtueMart. The admin interface is pretty good, it has excellent customer features, including one page checkout, and: you have complete access to the database using ASP/VBScript. (Well, I'm a java/C/PHP kind of person, so I'm not fond of VBScript, but the point is that you have a programming interface that you can use.)

The reason for giving up VirtueMart is that I've had too many customers e-mail and complain that they weren't able to checkout. And those were the ones that actually took the time to e-mail me...Too bad, because the concept of a shopping cart integrated with a Content Management System (Joomla) is a good one.

Mike

You should check out SoftSlate Commerce if you like Volusion. It is Java. ;)

Is there a such thing as a GOOD free shopping cart? If any one knows of on let me know. Thanks!

Yes and no. I really depends what you need it to do, who is going to build the site with it, and who is going to manage it day to day.

What the cart does

OS carts like OSCommerce, Zencart etc work just fine and have most features available should you need them, if not in the basic installation then as an addon. Commercial carts will also have these features.

Building the site

This one is very much down to your experience and knowledge. You'll need to know HTML/CSS and a bit of PHP in most cases. The difference? OSCommerce's templates are a bit clunky (html and php in the templates), Zencart I believe is a bit easier, and Cubecart runs on CSS templates. Commercial carts I find often have a simpler template structure and many can easily be editied in your favourite HTML editor. As a result incorporating your design into the shop with a commercial script may may be easier for you.

Managing the site day to day

The administration/backend is where the site owner will spend most time so take a look and find out if they understand how to use it! People often neglect this point, if your client can't use it they will be forever ringing you up with questions. I usually find a selection of cart systems that will do the job and talk to my client to see which one they like the look and feel of. It doesn't matter if it's free or commercial software, getting the right one for you client is!


I would suggest looking for a few cart systems that will suit your clients needs. Don't look at the price but concentrate on what the script does and how easy it will be for you the designer to implement. Make a short list of possible solutions (you can do cheap/medium/expensive if you want) and take it to your client to show them what the script is capable of and show them admins features. Let them choose the one that's right for them.

You could try looking into cubecart.com

You could always push the open-source carts and charge by the hour for admin training... you will make the most money on that part alone! :D

As I always do I highly recommend Avactis Shopping Cart,
http://www.avactis.com

They just released a new version I would suggest anyone interested in a very good easy to customize cart which had a great admin side check out the following

http://www.avactis.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=482

Just my 2 cents

Ron

Do you think that it would be easy to use for the site admin? In other words, does everything make sense?
No matter what cart you go with there will be a learning curve. After the initial setup and a few settings are in place, it will all become very familiar to you. :)

Also, having worked with both, osCommerce & ZenCart, I definitely recommend ZenCart as the better of the two. Their Forum is very useful for help and the Addon Modules actually work!