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Trends in eCommerce Packages
Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 1:28 pm
by volomike
I'm wanting to know what PHP-based eCommerce package you guys like and why, and hopefully if you've actually used it, and let me know if you have different packages you use for low-end versus non-low-end markets. I don't have much care about whether the package is pay-only or free -- usually even when an item is pay-only, it's about $300, which is in my budget. (However, I'm not a fan at all of ones you have to pay fees on per month.)
Re: Trends in eCommerce Packages
Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 3:49 pm
by onion2k
I voted 'Other' because I wrote my own.
Re: Trends in eCommerce Packages
Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 3:58 pm
by volomike
onion2k wrote:I voted 'Other' because I wrote my own.
When you said you wrote your own, how do you keep up with various tax and online shopping laws?
For me, I wrote my own in the past and the way I did it besides the obvious catalog/shopping cart stuff was to collect tax only if the client's customer was geographically located in the same state of the USA as the nexus of the business. And, in some cases I had to tack on special city and county tax exceptions, or exceptions based on age (a retirement age thing here). I also had to accommodate the COPPA Act. However, my system integrated with someone's handheld creditcard unit by giving the merchant business a secure web page to see transactions, mark them pending, chargeback, etc. Now, however, even if I integrated it with a paypal, google checkout, or something else, I might have more laws and regulations to have to deal with, I suspect.
Re: Trends in eCommerce Packages
Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 8:32 pm
by seodevhead
I'm very familiar with most shopping cart scripts, and of the list, I would hands down say the winner is XCart and Magento. But as you read in my other post, Magento lacks on it's ability to communicate with automated billing routines. XCart CAN do that... but you must be compliant to the standards set forth for credit card security (I forget the acronym). The XCart developers can build an addon module for use with Authorize.Net's ARB API for a very attractive price... Magento will charge you an arm and a leg I'm sure.
If I was just selling tangible items, I'd probably go with magento for it's cleanliness as a storefront and backend. XCart has all the bells and whistles however.
I ended up writing my own however, using the world's best payment processor (but that's my secret).

Re: Trends in eCommerce Packages
Posted: Fri May 16, 2008 10:22 pm
by Christopher
volomike wrote:When you said you wrote your own, how do you keep up with various tax and online shopping laws?
I don't normally do e-commerce sites, but the ones I do are built custom because the client requires exactly the things you discuss above (e.g., special cart features, taxes, very irregular shipping needs, laws like COPPA, etc.) and wants a very specific implementation.
Re: Trends in eCommerce Packages
Posted: Sat May 17, 2008 4:50 am
by onion2k
volomike wrote:onion2k wrote:I voted 'Other' because I wrote my own.
When you said you wrote your own, how do you keep up with various tax and online shopping laws?
I'm in the UK. There's only one set of laws and they rarely change.
Re: Trends in eCommerce Packages
Posted: Sat May 17, 2008 5:48 am
by malcolmboston
onion2k wrote:volomike wrote:onion2k wrote:I voted 'Other' because I wrote my own.
When you said you wrote your own, how do you keep up with various tax and online shopping laws?
I'm in the UK. There's only one set of laws and they rarely change.
i only really deal with eCommerce sites now, im also from the UK and ive never had any problems.
Re: Trends in eCommerce Packages
Posted: Sat May 17, 2008 6:43 am
by onion2k
I'm going to be moving up to Newcastle soon(ish). You, me and Jaybird (who's in york I think) need to go to the pub.