osCOmmerce - How Difficult Is It ???

All of these Merchant Account/Shopping Cart providers to choose from ...

Can any of you with experience with osCommerce provide some feedback on your, well ... experience with osCommerce (setting up shop, order processing, etc.) ???

- Are you still with osCommerce?
- What are the benefits and/or disadvantages?
- What else would a store owner need in addition to the osCommerce software?
- Can an osCommerce store be hosted anywhere?


No list/information is too exhaustive.


THANK YOU for your insight and advice !!!

:D

Experience in PHP? Chances are yes. They have a support forum that you can ask questions in as well. But if you don't have any experience in PHP, it might be a bit difficult

Oscommerce! My favorite subject. Our store uses oscommerce and while the out of the box version is at okay in visuals the software works fantastic. And like Corey said, you may want to know a little bit of PHP and the forums are excellent. There are plenty of mod’s there too.

And I read somewhere that a new version is on it’s way soon. Check our store out by following my signature.

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Originally Posted by Elegant

Oscommerce! My favorite subject. Our store uses oscommerce and while the out of the box version is at okay in visuals the software works fantastic. And like Corey said, you may want to know a little bit of PHP and the forums are excellent. There are plenty of mod’s there too.

And I read somewhere that a new version is on it’s way soon. Check our store out by following my signature.

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Tried linking to your website, but it says "page unable to be displayed."

Embarrassing! Nothing like misspelling your own domain. Try that again and thanks for the heads up on that!

There are a number of "Loaded" versions of osCommerce available. These are certainly worth a look at. Basically, the loaded versions have (already configured) a number of the most popular modules and other security updates and additional features as well. Some of the Loaded versions of osCommerce include:

* http://creloaded.com/
* http://www.oscdox.com/
* http://www.zencart.com/

We went for CRE Loaded for http://gilletts.com.au , so I can talk a little more about it. We loved all of the included modules with CRE - it was probably the biggest selling point for us. The second thing that we liked about CRE was that we could get the company that created CRE (Chain Reaction Works) to do additional module installations (there are thousands of contributions available for osCommerce) and to do some custom work for us.

When we started up, we had a look at
a) the contributions already within CRE and;
b) the contributions available for osCommerce.

We made a list of all of the osCommerce contributions that we wanted (that were obviously not already in CRE) and got Chain Reaction Works to install them all for us. It would mean that we could get everything up and running very quickly (which was important as we had to get things live before xmas).

I do believe that Zen Cart is very good as well. However, I have not had any experience with it and believe that it is not easy to install or even possible to install standard osCommerce contributions into it.

Hope that helps!

Andrew.

>Are you still with osCommerce?
We don't use it anymore.

>- What are the benefits and/or disadvantages?
Benefits:
- Free
- A lot of contributions
- Many hosting companies installed this software

Disadvantages:
- You need PHP programming skills to customize to your own design
- No immediate support
- Very difficult to customize design

>- What else would a store owner need in addition to the osCommerce software?
- payment gateway/merchant account to accept payments
- account with UPS/USPS/DHL if you use them to for shipping
- a good PHP programmer to support

>- Can an osCommerce store be hosted anywhere?
www.aplus.net etc.

The main disadvantage - it's very difficult to customize design if you don't have PHP skills.

Its no more difficult than if you purchased another shopping cart.. Just buy a template.. There are a lot of hosting companies that offer free install of the store.. (cre loaded zencart etc.. ) www.creloaded.com is probably the most activly updated.. They release patches at least every month (new features other bugs) and like said elsewhere, if chainreaction hosts your site, support is simple. There also site where you can hire php help.. www.crelance.com is one.. if you find one that offers more talent from Asia, your price will be very cheap. Those guys do things for pennies on the $, which is hard when us USA freelancers try and make a living outside our normal client base.. $3 an hour (or less) compared to $40-$115 per hour for a good USA programer..

I first started with OSC, but found all the contribs (the add-ons) that I needed conflicted with each other. Luckily I had found CRE loaded soon after. I maintain about 15 very profitable sites with minimal effort.. something you may also consider is having the site set up/customized by a techie like myself.. then the rest is easy.. or do what most people do, they learn .php and do it all themselves.. This works great if you have the desire to learn, and the time for a professional roll out.. If time is not on your side, Outside set up is recommended.. or going with another out of the box store.. Most hosting sites have some sort of cart for very reasonable prices..

Jason

I just setup my first osCommerce for myself. It is still in test with the test items in the DB, http://www.airbrushsupplystore.com/store It was very easy to setup and edit the layout.

The company I am working for resells x-cart to our customers. x-Cart the first few times is a little bit of a challenge to modify, but works very well.

osCommerce was very easy to modify. I had the whole store setup and modified in just a few hours. I setup PayPal for the payment transaction, shipping zones, tax rates.

I am just going through the legal stuff now to get an EID, and state tax ID, to be able to go to the manufacturers to get inventory.

Do not use osCommerce. If you do then you WILL need a PHP programmer to make some changes or installs.

Use Zen Cart or CRE Loaded (CRE Loaded is also my fav for the reasons noted above) as they already have much of the installs included. Most owners unless they need something special or want to make changes and have someone correct them (since no one likes to save their PHP files first) do not need a dedicated PHP guy/gal. If you want additional support (as most hosting firms do not offer any) Chain Reaction Web is the best place to go for hosting (i dont work there or get paid by them) for CRE Loaded sites, because their team works on or has experience with the CRE project. Sal helps manage both CRW and CRE....which i am sure is a lot to juggle but he does a great job.

Another great platform is Virtuemart. It is for those wanting a more CMS with cart.....i have not run a store on it but from what i have seen it seems to work great.

oh..and for off the rack cre designs go to Template Monster or Algozone as they both have a large selection of CRE loaded options (i dont work there or get paid by them...i have just helped other clients go there and they have been happy) or other firms can design a custom built template for CRE ...such as Inventory Source (i do work there and get paid by them ;-)....but any designer can make your template)