The best shopping cart

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

We currently run an e-commerce site, it has been built with Click Cart Pro 6 but this shopping cart has many limitations and is some what basic.

Which shopping cart do the professionals use?

 

I personally like osCommerce. If you have any questions developers are more than happy to help you out.

 

OsCommerce or Zen-Cart are probably two of the best free ones, they can be made SEO friendly too. They require PHP & SQL database setup but is quite easy to setup. Loads of following for both too so there are plenty of shop themes for both.

TD

 

Zen-cart is built on OScommerce core, and to many it is just easiest.

 

Oscommerce or one of their derivatives is definitely the way to go, if you need reliable oscommerce hosting send me a PM as i can offer you some good discount rates, and free support for setting up and running your oscommerce store.

 

Cubecart is the best free one by a mile.


Notting

 

I have done extensive research into ecommerce packages. The best off-the-shelf solution I could find, that allows standards complient coding, is template based, and offers good value, is 'Sunshop'.

One feature I prioritised while researching, was a user friendly and easy to use admin section. Many store scripts are very complex, or messy, and hard for regular store owners to use. A good example would be JShop. It has great features, but the admin section really puts me off. Keep in mind that regular internet users need things to be easy - you could end up increasing training time and risk alienation with your clients.

Sunshop has by-far the best admin section I've tested. Clients thank me for providing them with an intuitive and easy-to-use back-end to their online stores.

If you want a free solution, try the above suggestions. Personally I have no problem investing in a license for a comprehensive shopping cart. Open source often require alot more work and research whilst developing.

Remember to always check your chosen payment gateway is supported, before selecting a shopping cart!

One final point about Sunshop, the support is okay, but I always get the feeling that they could be more helpful and polite - it sometimes feels that they are reluctant to help. With that said, the good out-weighs the bad - it offers all the quality features I need, is very flexible and it works well.

 

There is no such thing as the "best" otherwise there would only be one.

You need to look at your requirements and then match them against the offerings to create a short list and then have a look at demos to make sure you can get on with the admin side of it.

For example, if you want to be able to control stock levels down to individual combined varients (eg you have a T Shirt available in 3 colours and 3 sizes - so 9 variants) not all carts allow this level of stock control so it would "limit" your options. On the other side, if you are using drop shipping and so stock level is not important at all then the ability to export the financials into QuickBooks may be much more important

 

Second that .. I myself help out folks on oscommerce forums .. and certainly rates better then zen-cart or minerva.

Cheers
GS

 

Actually there is a best, its cubecart!

www.viparrot.com

Notting

 

I personally use Oscommerce. I have found that Zen-Cart lacks some advanced features

 

Guys: I used to use osCommerce but found the table based structure wasn't for me. I code to standards, most osCommerce sites fail validation with numeorus errors. If validation and semantic coding matter to you - look for systems that support valid XHTML/CSS.

 

oscommerce is good you may want to try virtuemart few of my friends have liked it for simple shopping cart stuff.

 

…i was simply saying that the best one I could find that fullfilled my requirments.

Notting: care to share you reasoning here? What other systems are you comparing too?

 

Most of these shopping carts allow you to build an entire site around it. However, they are a bit difficult to work with if your site is already up and running (and has been for about 10 years).

Does anyone have any suggestions for a shopping cart that can be integrated to an existing static HTML site?

 

This is my main problem too! I have an database of over 8,000 products and have found that trying to keep both my site database and the shopping cart database synced up is very difficult. My site is already built and not ready for any redesign soon.

I need a simple shopping cart that has some versatility but is not so complex on the admin side. I've looked at both OsCommerce and Zen-Cart but don't know if they are for me.

 

Check out http://www.easystorehosting.com

They are a very good e-commerce resource. They help you set up e-commerce websites in minutes.

 

Personally I like Avactis shopping cart for its easy-to-use admin area and easy storefront design customization. Earlier we used osCommerce, but it was difficult for our users. Most of our users don't have programming experience and want somethimg they can understand. Avactis was one of the solutions.

 

I personally use Ezimerchant professional shopping cart software for my online fishing stores. very easy to use. SEO a breeze, Data feeds and more.. - More info on ezimerchant shopping cart software here

 

use osCommerce. A growing free commerce CMS.