Shopping Carts
June 15, 2007 – 1:14 pm
A few weeks back I mentioned someone had been interested in buying my shopping cart script. Whilst the final client never went through with it in the end, it still got me thinking that perhaps I could sell my code. Of course, it needs a lot of work still, extras adding in, testing thoroughly. I have a couple of client sites which use this as their basic framework with custom additions and seem to be running fine.
However, a question on a forum today got me thinking even further. The question was
What I'm looking for is a lite shopping cart solution, main requirements are pay with paypal and stock control (as most of the items are one-offs or no more than 6 of an item, it must say out of stock once all purchased)
I've often seen people ask for a lightweight shopping cart and of course the bulk of cart scripts out there, such as osCommerce and Cube Cart, are pretty heavyweight as they try and cover as many possibilities as possible. Basic carts are pretty rare, and then basic carts that are easy to use for the non technically minded, produce standards compliant code and are accessible are probably virtually zero.
Reducing my cart script to suit a lightweight shop, the type of script that could be upgraded to say a Pro version later down the line, would be fairly straight forward to do. A no frills cart that simply allows the owner to add in products and have them display on the front end, accept payment via PayPal or Nochex - perfect for the small store that doesn't have a merchant account. I would remove the CMS from the script as that wouldn't be included, nor would the news letter mailing system or the categories. A very small little cart where all the products would go into one category effectively. People would buy without needing to create an account.
Think it could work?
6 Responses to “Shopping Carts”
Definitely.
If you allow the possibility of selling digital products (via IPN etc) with instant delivery, you could have a nice little cart. You'd also need to have some reporting features, which is what most carts don't have.
By gary on Jun 15, 2007
Hey Gary,
I guess I could offer physical and digital product versions and a combination of both. Essentially going from small to medium to large versions of the cart. As for reporting features, I have some already written but am always interested to know what else people want to find out. If I could work out how to make the reports modular then people could simply pick and add the ones they wanted. Or just offer the admin in different bundles too, one with minimal reporting and one with everything I can think of!
By Sarah on Jun 15, 2007
A site has to grow with the business and it would not be long before people who wanted a shopping cart such as you describe (which is akin to an HTML site with PayPal buttons) realize they actually need an eCommerce solution which is a totally different ballgame.
And this is where osCommerce is ideal. If you are talking eCommerce (and these days you should be) you can't get lighter than oCommerce. If you want heavy go look at CRE Loaded.
By Kym on Jun 16, 2007
Hi Kym, thanks for your comments. My post was exploring the idea of offering light as well as full scale ecommerce packages. As mentioned, I already have a script that allows clients to run their entire site similar to the way osCommerce works, but including a CMS so they don't even need to edit the language files.
Personally I wouldn't use osCommerce unless a client requested it. Whilst theoretically it's a good idea, it's table-based, inaccessible and bloated. It also relies on registered globals being on, unless you apply an extra contribution.
osCommerce straight out the box produces old, invalid, non semantic markup. In the UK we have to adhere to laws to ensure a business or service website complies up to WAI Level AA. It would take me longer to get osCommerce to comply than to use my own pre-written solution which is already valid CSS/XHTML 1.0 Strict on both the front and back end of the site where you simply need to update the CSS file to control the layout and design of the site.
My idea would be (as mentioned in the post) to offer varying stages of software. Allow the small business to buy a lightweight version that's designed for the sale of a handful of products, then to upgrade to an intermediate version, where the shopping cart is available but the CMS isn't, and then the full version which offers the whole job lot. I have the scripts already, it's just setting them up, covering all possible requirements such as Gary's suggestion of digital products, and getting it thoroughly tested.
Something for the summer!
By Sarah on Jun 16, 2007
That would definitely work Sarah. Most carts available are similar to the client cracking a nut with a sledgehammer. Too much function and not enough style usually.
By Mark on Jun 18, 2007
Hi Mark, I think this is my main selling point, to allow people who don't have a clue to be able deal with their own site without outside help - once the design is set up of course
By Sarah on Jun 18, 2007