Tuesday, October 26, 2010

New Project: First step... E-commerce.

Ok, so I have had a project idea in the back of my mind for several years and am finally going to tentatively takes a step closer to putting that project into motion. I won't reveal too much at the moment but I do want to get some opinions about one aspect of it. This project will involve the retail sale of several products on a website. While I am fairly experienced with most web-design aspects, e-commerce is not something I have spent a lot of time on. I am looking for a cart system for my website and have it narrowed down to two:

 
or


The reason I have it narrowed down to these two is fairly simple. I want an open source cart. Not only is it much cheaper but they are much more customizable. I know they can sometimes be buggy simply due to the open source nature of things but I am starting small so I don't really see it being a problem.

I have researched these two quite a bit and just from the specs I am leaning a bit more towards Magento. However, I was hoping to get some feedback from those of you who have actually used one or both of these. Just to give you a better idea of what it will be used for I am looking at starting with 8 standard products. There will be only two options; color and size. I haven't decided on a payment gateway yet but I will most likely go with Authorize.net, Quickbooks, or maybe even PayPal. If you guys have any experience with these carts I would really appreciate some comments about them. Any input would be appreciated.
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12 comments:

  1. Nerd LifeOctober 26, 2010 at 1:02 AM

    Cool, I'll check back to see if you've made your decision

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  2. AnonymousOctober 26, 2010 at 7:17 AM

    thanks i've always considered doing this, looking forward to your follow through and assessment

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  3. Light Weight Baby!October 26, 2010 at 10:27 AM

    wow, I'll stay posted

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  4. UnknownOctober 26, 2010 at 12:24 PM

    Don't have any experience with the carts, per say, but we've used PayPal to transfer literally tens and thousands of dollars over the last few years with minimal hiccups. So many people find the site un-trustworthy for some reason, when really it's not.

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  5. SkimboshOctober 26, 2010 at 1:28 PM

    If you are good with making your own modifications, you can roll with osCommerce. Since you are an experienced designer, it might come easier to you, since osC doesn't exactly have the greatest CSRs to help you.

    ALWAYS include PayPal in your method of payments. Love it or hate it, it's becoming a standard form of payment.

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  6. DavidMadeOctober 26, 2010 at 3:07 PM

    I'd go with Magento

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  7. IshuOctober 26, 2010 at 6:46 PM

    Sorry, I don't knoe neither of them, but good luck!

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  8. tortacularOctober 27, 2010 at 3:46 PM

    i had to read it all the way through. good stuff!

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  9. Nerd LifeOctober 28, 2010 at 12:21 AM

    did you make your decision yet?

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  10. razortekOctober 28, 2010 at 4:15 AM

    fullowin 'n' suppin :)

    wtfiniggagun

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  11. The Geeks ParadiseOctober 28, 2010 at 4:34 AM

    @MacPCharmony, yes, I have. I have decided to go with Magento. I asked some developer friends of mine and they all seemed to agree. The consensus seemed to be that while OsCommerce is infinitely customizable, Magento gives a much better all-around experience and a cleaner look. And with this being such a small project, I feel that Magento will be better suited to my needs. Next update will chart the path from installation to setup of the system.

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  12. Light Weight Baby!October 28, 2010 at 1:51 PM

    ecommerce news is always good

    ReplyDelete

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