need an ad cart

[mamabear]

Hi I am a brick and mortar implementing e commerce to my site. I am a childrens boutique selling the same inventory I have in my store so I need a cart with inventory control. I also need to have mulitiple images available for each item and the ability to enlarge the images. I also need to maintain the site on my own once it is set up. I need to be up and running in the next week. I initially was looking at volusion, but I think I would rather own the cart than lease. I also looked at shopsite pro but don't want to spend $2000 on the cart upfront plus I would have to use templates just to get it to do what I need. I also looked at AAO site builder which seems like an ok alternative for around $200. I also need the site custom designed on a shoestring budget. I found a designer that will design and do monthly payments for a year so I like that option, now I just need a cart. Any advice is much appreciated. This is a whole new world for me. I just want to make the right decision.Any recommendations?

[roban]

I use CsCart and am very happy with it. I have also installed it on many client sites and web master for them. It is reliable and does everything you need. The cost of a license is under $200.00.

[mamabear]

Thank you. I checked them out. Do you have to use their templates. I would rather have something custom designed I think. Do you see a benefit to owning rather than leasing the cart. The girl who I might use to design my site is recommending leasing through merchant moms because of their customer support and says there really isn't a benefit to owning rather than leasing. What's your opinion, and do you do custom template designs? There is a site I really liked, but they use yahoo. Yahoo appears to be more expensive and they charge a 1.5% transaction charge in addition to the monthly fee. I read on another post where a store outgrew merchant moms. Again, I want to make the right decision the first time.
Thanks so much for your time and your reccomendations.

[brokensaber]

I have tried a ton of carts and I would say Vevocart is the best for the money. It even overshadows the real expensive carts out there in features and quality. It even trumps them on lanquage. It's asp.net 3.5 with Ajax. Friendly Urls, product management, a slew of gateways and shipping options, customer reviews, bulk product import, etc. The Pro version is about 250 US and you get the full source code as well.

I'm currently setting up my site and toying with the idea of adding some silverlight to it.

[PCIMerch]

ASPDotNetStorefront is a great software. Very flexible, easy to use, and can be designed on very easily. It is $1295, though, but I feel well worth it. Also it meets the highest standards in credit card security, which is quite important.

You may also want to look at BV Software. Lots of good features, not PABP (credit card security standard) compliant yet, but I think will be soon. One thing I can't speak to is the ease of design. However it is much less than the above at $499.

Keep in mind, at the end of the day, your shopping cart is the online equivalent to your brick & mortar storefront. Good luck!