Best Cart and Why

[misteroriginal]

1. Do I have to have a cart? Smiley

No. eBay is a turnkey eCommerce system. If you choose to close your eBay store, then you "save" money but have to spend your time (i.e., time=money) addressing the many issues they handle very well. It's nothing to get emotional about, like many do. You just try to make the best business decisions specific to your situation.

2. If I create my site using Go Live or Dreamweaver, what purpose does the cart serve?

The advantage of creating a cart using DreamWeaver, for example, is you can use the graphical interface to create custom features. You can make your cart look and function in a way that is far more complimentary to your business than ZenCart. Of course, it will take more time, and you will have a steeper learning curve. From simple/minimum flexibility to complex/maximum flexibility, you could say eBay->osCommerce family->DreamWeaver with WebAssist, etc->DreamWeaver with ColdFusion, ASP, PHP, dotNet->Handcoded in whatever languages you love. It's a matter of balance of development time, feature needs, custom look needs, time invested, money invested up front versus over time, expected return on investment, etc.

3. Is a cart able to function as only a payment/checkout system and NOT a catalog? Is there an advantage to this?

This is sort of the role Paypal plays.

4. Which cart is easiest to install and configure?

They are all pretty easy to install, for the most part. There are a few tricks to it, like you need to make sure your host doesn't cause conflicts with their specific configuration.

5. Which cart has the most attractive appearance?

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but I think they are all ugly unless you fix customize them. You can generally browse what others have done, but ZenCart customizations, for example, can be up to $10,000, or perhaps more. So, just because you see a beautiful store in the "whatever cart" gallery/showcase, it doesn't mean the company didn't spend an arm & leg to get it there, or a huge amount of time.

6. Which cart is the most functional/has excellent ease of use?

You need to make a list of the functions you want. You can hire BBH to write modules for ZenCart, according to popular rumors floating about. You should be able to have just about any features you want, although it's cheaper if the cart already matches your priority list. Security is always a huge concern, and it's a moving target, so you want to be sure the custom modules will work with security upgrades, and other feature upgrades. While you're at it, check into the development cycle of the carts that you find attractive.

7. How is SEO affected by the choice of a cart?

SEO is largely a checklist you go through to make your site viewable by the search engines. There are a lot of people out their who are basically trying to scam Google, but this is not good for long-term strategy. VirtueMart, for example, has a gorgeous interface that allows you to type in metacrap, alt tags, and the like, without having to look at HTML. Eventually, that's where the SEO will go, no matter how it gets there.

8. Which cart  do you prefer and why?

I prefer a mixed eBay / ZenCart strategy based on not knowing much else about the situation. The ZenCart team is highly active in terms of upgrades, security patches, and their forum. CRE Loaded sneaks Google AdWords in their "free" version, which irritates me. I have nothing against people making money, but I get sick of all the sneaky business schemes.

9. Can you reccommend someone to install a cart?

Diger might be willing to install a cart for free, but the mods can get prety time-consuming. I'm guessing Diger can't stand up right now, after all she's in Greece. Brithday's typically include 24-hours of Oozo on the nude beaches, so you or I can ask her tomorrow, or maybe in a few days.

These are my opinions based on my huge brain size and years of experience downloading nudies, playing video games, and generally slacking off.

[WebGraphicsSource]

You should secure your admin directory by changing the directory name.

I'd also recommend adding the free SEO mod - i.e. pages like  http://www.uponabook.com/1812theamericanstory-p-9.html instead of http://www.theactivedog.com/product_info.php?cPath=33&products_id=62 . Without the SEO mod CRE, osC, and Zen pages aren't very SEO friendly.

Cre-loaded has just released a new version of SEO url's, I was half way done getting it set up for mary, when the new version came out yesterday.

[regic]

Cre-loaded has just released a new version of SEO url's

Why pay $50 for CRE's SEO mod when you can install Chemo's Ultimate SEO URLs mod for free?  The code changes needed to make the free mod work with the current version of CRE are minor. Read the Ultimate SEO thread on their forum and you'll be able to make the changes if you know PHP.

[misteroriginal]

[quote author=regic link=topic=4559.msg19678#msg19678 date=1154707524]

Cre-loaded has just released a new version of SEO url's

Why pay $50 for CRE's SEO mod when you can install Chemo's Ultimate SEO URLs mod for free?  The code changes needed to make the free mod work with the current version of CRE are minor. Read the Ultimate SEO thread on their forum and you'll be able to make the changes if you know PHP.
[/quote]No point in learning PHP. Look. Their stock is falling:
http://www.php.net/usage.php

I think they're cooking the books.

[xppman]

No since in paying starving web designers either, when we can do it all for FREE.  ;D

[regic]

CRE Loaded sneaks Google AdWords in their "free" version, which irritates me.

That in itself is a reason not to choose CRE.  CRE gets the revenue from those Google Ads and the site owner gets nothing. Charging $70 for their 'Pro' version when you can use Zen and add the same features for free is another reason I don't like them.

[maggie777]

Best Cart

http://demo.monstercommerce.com/
http://www.monstercommerce.com/ 

[BellisimaJ.]

Thank you everyone for all the info.

Maggie, Monster is a hosted solution, so would not work for use with Tulips Hosting. But thank you---they do have nice carts!

Regic, I am thinking I will go with having you  install a zen cart once you add all the mods.

Also, is there a mod for Google checkout (zen cart)yet?


Are there any advantages in using a cube cart, does anyone know?

[regic]

Also, is there a mod for Google checkout (zen cart)yet?

Not yet.  A level 2 mod (full order  integration) is expected soon but the developer iplans to charge $150.

Are there any advantages in using a cube cart, does anyone know?

CubeCart has the least features of any of the carts.

I finished the demos for CubeCart and CRELoaded.  I'll start a new topic with links to the demos.  I added the free SeoMod mod to CubeCart and the FREE Chemo's Ultimate SEO URLs to CRELoaded

Why pay $50 for CRE's SEO mod when you can install Chemo's Ultimate SEO URLs mod for free?  icon_scratch The code changes needed to make the free mod work with the current version of CRE are minor. Read the Ultimate SEO thread on their forum and you'll be able to make the changes if you know PHP.

Total time needed to rewrite the code on the FREE mod so it would work with the 6.20 patch 6 version of CRE Loaded: under 3 minutes. 

[BellisimaJ.]

Not yet.  A level 2 mod (full order  integration) is expected soon but the developer iplans to charge $150.

Well, at least there will be one.  :

Total time needed to rewrite the code on the FREE mod so it would work with the 6.20 patch 6 version of CRE Loaded: under 3 minutes.  Tongue

;D