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To choose the means whereby we put our products on the world-wide-web, we proceed by a process of elimination. |
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The chief criteria for judging a shopping
cart is 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, and thus 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.
(May I say parenthetically that I was introduced to
Perl programming unwillingly by an early version of
one of the carts below; it had a bug, and I had to learn
some Perl to fix it. A shopkeeper should not have to
learn bricklaying in order to open his store, therefore
a bit of research is time well spent. )
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.
So, having taken all the above into consideration,
what are the options?
Having gone though twenty-plus different sub $500 shopping
cart software solutions, I now present, in order of
preference, the cheapest, simplest, and most effective
solutions:
1. 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. You may need
to pay a few bucks to an expert via a freelance site
like Scriptlance.com,
if you run into difficulties.
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.
2. X-cart (commercial) - http://www.x-cart.com
Similar to Oscommerce. Commercial. 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.
3. 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.
3. 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.
4. Agora (free) - http://www.agoracart.com
A Web-Store/Commerce.cgi hybrid.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. 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.
9. 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, naturally. This isn't hard.
Make sure you write your mail server URL into the code.
For the customer, the order module is a 160kb download.
Not too bad at all.
10. Selena Sol's Web Store (free) - http://www.extropia.com
The mama of them all; the first internet shopping cart
of note. Allows orders to be encrypted via PGP if you
have PGP installed on your server. Very complex for
an ecommerce newbie.
11. PerlShop (free) - http://www.perlshop.org
PerlShop is a simple shop to set up. One of the first
shopping carts.
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.
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?
About The Author
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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