Shopping Carts For The Weary
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
(continued...)
Shopping Carts For The Weary
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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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