Shopping Carts For The Faint Of Heart
by T. O' Donnell
Published on this site: April 30th, 2005 - See
more articles from this month...
The chief criteria for judging an ecommerce shopping cart are the
number of credit card processors and shipping services it supports,
and the number of people that support it.
Why? Because credit card processors and shipping services mutate
all the time. Your cart will require updating. Which service works
today may go out of business tomorrow, and leave you with the orders
piling up.
Other important criteria are how easy it is to set up, and add
products, and how easy it is for the customer to use.
When you set up your shop test it using a wide variety of the oldest
and buggiest browsers you can find. If your web store works under
them you're home and dry.
Here are the cheapest, simplest, and most effective carts I've
found:
- Oscommerce (free) - http://www.oscommerce.com
A very good, full-featured, cart. Uses Php and MySQL. Not easy
to set up for a 'newbie'. Cookies are used to track the order.
If you have PhpMyAdmin installed in your web account, it's easier.
Requires a customer to register before they can make a purchase.
Supports a wide range of credit-card processors and shipping services.
Bad point: Technical support is limited to the Oscommerce
forums, which are not helpful to newbies.
Also, it may be a while before an update is available to a payment
module. These are done by unpaid enthusiasts.
Good point: Oscommerce is supported by thousands of unpaid
enthusiasts; this means updates do eventually arrive, and it's
less likely to go out of business, unlike a commercial cart.
- X-Cart (commercial) - http://www.x-cart.com
Similar to Oscommerce. Requires a customer to register before
they can make a purchase. Lots of features and add-ons.
Supports a wide range of credit-card processors and shipping
services. Has an affiliate program add-on, and lets others
sell products though your cart.
- Dansie Cart (commercial) - http://www.dansie.net
A well specified cart. Supports a wide range of credit-card
processors and shipping services.
Bad point: Apparently the Perl code is obscured,
to make it harder to copy, which is annoying if you want
to customise it.
- Interchange (free) - http://www.icdevgroup.org
A version of the old Akopia / Minivend carts. Complex product
with lots of files and a lot of setting up to do. A complete solution,
and includes the option of third party credit-card real-time order
processing. Encrypts orders.
- Agora (free) - http://www.agoracart.com
A Web-Store/Commerce.cgi hybrid.
- The Commission Cart (commercial) -
http://www.siteinteractive.com
A CGI-based shopping cart which also functions as an affiliate
program. Other webmasters earn commissions by signing up and linking
to your site.
- ShopFactory (commercial) - http://www.shopfactory.Com
Has a nice little wizard-based set-up. If you have a lot of items
in your shop, this is an option worth checking out.
This is a very valuable feature. A person who's set up CGI scripts
before will get the most out of this. Supports a wide range of
credit-card processors and shipping services.
Bad points: It's ugly, awkward, and uses JavaScript too
much.
- WebGenie Shopping Cart Pro (commercial) -
http://www.webgenie.com
A simple, wizard-based option. Uses Javascript a bit, but the
main work is done by CGI scripts. It saves the credit card information
on your server.
It's for someone who hasn't set up a CGI script before. Expensive
for what you get, but it works. Option to buy it on hire-purchase.
- Actinic Catalog (commercial) - http://www.actinic.co.uk
Most suitable if you have lots of items in your store. It's a
'wizard'-based PC program; you type in your information, and the
program sets up the store.
You should set up the default store as-is, then customise it later.
Supports a wide range of credit-card processors and shipping services.
A little complicated for an internet newbie; there's quite a lot
in it.
- Order Maven (commercial) - http://www.briggsoft.com
A clever little program. It's a standalone Windows executable,
which the customer downloads. The customer starts it up, chooses
the product, enters their details, and sends off their order like
an email, with the credit card details encrypted. It costs $29.00
at the time of writing. No secure server or order page needed;
it's all done on the customer's PC at their leisure.
You need to customise it. Make sure you write your mail server
URL into the code. For the customer, the order module is a 160kb
download.
NOTE: Try to avoid carts that use cookies and javascript
only, or that tie you into only one secure server and credit-card
processor. Also avoid web-based services that you lease only.
They can go out of business, leaving you flat.
Having read the above you should have eliminated quite a
few programs from your shopping list. They either won't work
properly with all browsers, or they won't encrypt your order,
or they want to tie you into their manufacturers' secure order
system at $40+ per month.
Another option is to get a bespoke system set up for you by a specialist
company. These cost thousands of dollars. Aren't you glad you read
this far?
T. O' Donnell (http://www.tigertom.com/web-designer-london.shtml)
is an
ecommerce and web site design consultant in London, UK.
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