Hi,

I want a shopping cart for my site but can't find anything suitable that works. Can anyone suggest anything (free is best), this is what I need :-

Each item displayed with a good length description & image. These are unique items so I will only be selling one of each. At most my range will be 2000 items but it will start well under 100.

I want to be able to edit pay options to enable cheque, paypal etc.

Most items can be set in a picture frame so we want to be able to add that option as follows Price = £100 add framing £10.

If anyone can suggest a cheap merchant service so I can acept credits cards I that would be great.

Thanks for any help.

osCommerce is good, and it's free, but it's not what I'd call simple. Configuring it is a headache.

You'll find a gaggle of shopping carts on Google!

There is a good how-to for installing on Ensim in the how-to forum.

I've look at osCommerce and yes it's a great product BUT it's no good for what I need unless I'm wrong about it. I don't want links like "manufactures" my products don't have them.

Webbcite:
Yes, there is. But installing is the easy part. Customizing to your needs is the hassle. If you haven't tried it yourself, ask the Mouse who wrote the how-to.

I installed this for a couple DIY clients, and it became a support nightmare. Although I like it, don't get me wrong, I wouldn't recommend it for anyone other than a developer.

Driftwood:


Nah, that's just the demo you're looking at!

So if I install it do you think I will be able to change these headings?

Sure, Driftwood.

Extensive customization is possible, but even making simple changes can become quite complex. Just keep in mind you will have to delve into PHP to really make it fly right. It's far from a plug'n'play solution. And you have to keep current with updates. I had to do extensive customization for a couple of my clients (not just look & feel, but functionality). IOW, if you wanna tinker endlessly, you may find it suites your needs. But I get the impression from the tone of your posts that you're looking for something easy to use, in which case, this certainly isn't the solution for you. There are many other choices available. Search Google. Bottom line: free ain't always so cheap in the long run.

Good-luck!

Sherlock Cajun is on the case, Sir! If you want a complete third-party ecommerce solution, try out http://www.CCNow.com. It's a shopping cart that has it's on billing solution. I used it a few years ago and my sister uses it for her site to sell items. Tammy Winters (checkout the contact page). Yes, that really is my sister (sister from another Mister....we call each other brother/sister b/c we've been there for each other).

Cajun

Cajun,

Whoa! Do you realize CCnow charges roughly 10% on transactions?

Yikes! Well, if he stays under $100, he'll be ok. I'm off to search. Let's go Dr. Watson Rebis. LOL!!


Sherlock Dj Cajun
"On The Job"

He can always use Paypal's shopping cart system. I know! I know! I always fall back on Paypal but they're kewl and offer a lot of stuff.

Cajun

You don't need to use "manufactures" or anything you don't want.
It can be as simple as you want it to be.
As REBIS already stated, it can become a support nightmare, but I never had that problem, since I'm very clear about what I do support and what I don't support and I send my clients to the oscommerce support site for anything I don't support.

I only use and recommend oscommerce and my clients are very happy with it and so am I.

If any one is looking for carts , i stummbled across a new one that is easy to install and growing in users called cpCommerce from a site http://www.cpradio.net

Worth the look.
cheers

Have you looked at StoreSense by Kurant?

its not free, but it kicks butt. (we are a master reseller )

and I am pretty sure that it is the only ecommerce solution that has 2 way integratetion with quikbooks.

we have a demo store that anybody can play around in.

NO advertising please!

its highly customizable.

just email
info@neoverve.com

for details.

For super-simple shopping carts I use www.mals-e.com. It's fast, easy, simple, and the actual checkout is hosted on a third-party server so you don't have to worry about security.

Many options for payments - check, credit card (various gateways supported), PayPal, icheck, egold (I think), etc.

I tried mal's, and after building a site that integrated with it I cancelled my account. I noticed a lot of folks that used to be on mals have moved on. Basically its the wrong business model for a lot of folks. If you've got your own server you've already outgrown Mals.

For the perl oriented Interchange cant be beat,
and in the world of PHP oscommerce rocks if you dont mind redoing html mixed with php (they dont yet have templates).

Search sourceforge for carts (sf.net).
There are other ones besides osc, but osc has boookooo features.

This thread was opened by me some while ago, I'm now happy with OSE and infact studying the delights of the different version incombatablitities. Having said that the basic setup is not to hard to understand and I had a working shop ready to take products in hour or so. Only wish paysystems.com where so quick :-(

Did you mean OSC?

I did a fresh install of OSC 2.2mvs1 over the weekend and found it very easy to customize.
But then again, I've done it before so I am not a beginner.

The only gotcha was the defaults for the admin directory in the install script hasnt been adjusted to reflect what the readme says to do with the admin tool, and thats confusing to new users.

The really hard part was dealing with preparing mysql because I wanted a separate database for OSC and ensim isnt built to help in that situation. Maybe ensim 3.5 improves in this area? I'm not ready for 3.5 yet.

I added XP style buttons from a contribution - these look really great.

I am now going to attempt to add the Linda McGrath download contribution.

yep thats the one, but as my site is there to earn money I'm prefer to go the speed route over fancy design. The only problem I've found it the transition from 2.1 to 2.2 or what ever verion they call it.