by: T. O' Donnell
To choose the
means whereby we put our products on the world-wide-web, we proceed by a process
of elimination.
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.
11. 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.
12.
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?
by-http://www.tigertom.com
