On Web wrote:
> "On Web" <ac297.RemoveThis@dial.pipex.commm> wrote in message
> news:7hl6h.26479$fz1.1944@newsfe4-win.ntli.net...
>> "On Web" <ac297.RemoveThis@dial.pipex.commm> wrote in message
>> news:36l6h.9966$bC3.9738@newsfe7-win.ntli.net...
>>> I've been asked to quote for a website with a shopping cart and CMS, I'm
>>> currently researching shopping carts (I have a likely CMS)
>>>
>>> The retailer will be UK based and offer mail order as well as downloads.
>>> It's also likely there will be a wholesale type operation to the retail
>>> trade. I'm looking to find the best off-the-shelf solution for this kind
>>> of operation. It will be neessary to customise the shopping cart to fit
>>> the overal design of the web site. It also seems to me that stock control
>>> will be important as well as financial reporting/order tracking, though
>>> these don't figure in the current brief. I'm aware that there are 1001
>>> products out there, so I'm taking a short cut here to find out what's
>>> likely to be the best solution for a UK based retailer. If successful,
>>> the site may be extended for use in other countries and languages, though
>>> that may well be a MK2 version. The online retail sector is new to me and
>>> currently the options seem overwhelming and my time is short. My gut
>>> feeling that what I'm looking for will be called actinic, but I'm looking
>>> for opinions and choices.
>>>
>>> Fully bespoke is not an option - what's intended is customisation and
>>> integration of products.
>>>
>>> Thanks.
>> While we're at it - it's most likely this may be remotely hosted, which
>> makes me think there may be a business vulnerability if the remote host
>> hits
>> a problem or the isp fails, the business operations wouls be halted or
>> rely
>> on 'manual' processing. Do businesses rely on remote hosts exclusively?
>
> OK, I've been told actinic isn't a real-time system. Anyone care to suggest
> a real-time alternative to actinic?
>
>
I use CubeCart. Its a popular shopping cart, and easier to set-up than
most of the others I've used.
It can handle digital (downloads) and physical items, or a mix of both.
Its a "free" download, but retains a small copyright notice in the page
title and page footer. If you pay a small registration fee, the
copyright message is removed.
(Search for "powered by cubecart" in google)
www.cubecart.com - Main site
www.cubecart.org - 3rd party add-ons, free and commercial (most
commercial mods are £5-£10)
It handles multi-lingual, and multi-currency.
Customisation is an active part of Cubecart as it uses a template
engine, keeping code and HTML separate.
Cubecart is mainly managed by a web-based admin section. You'll only
need to FTP when uploading any modifations - product images are uploaded
via the browser (you can also FTP)
I've no real experience of Actinic, but it basically runs on a web
server (using Perl scripting), and a PC application does most of the
hard work.
I like the idea - most web servers run Perl, and so you're not stuck
with Linux vs Windows hosting.
Other carts I've had experience of are:
OSCommerce - Free/open source. Lots of free mods, but not that easy to
set-up (from my experience)
Zen Cart - A fork of the above, a bit more "joined-up"
PD ShopPro - Windows server based (uses ASP/MS Access or SQL Server)
Your weakest link will be the web-host. If worldpay/paypal etc are
down, it should be a rare event.
A more common problem is the web-server being overloaded (if you're on a
shared server). This will mean a slow site, or even the site being down.
The best way to avoid this is to pick a decent hosting company, and then
ensure you can move quickly in the event of repeated problems.
One company I can recommend is
www.nativespace.com (I'm an ex-customer,
but now share a server with a friend)
Their tech support and prices are very good. If I had a hosting
requirement again, I'd not hesitate to use them again.
I hope this is of help,
Jason
>> Stay informed about: UK compatible shopping carts 
FAQ
Search
Profile
Private Messages
Log in/Register/Password
