[burger650]

If I was looking at putting together my own site rather than a template .. which shopping cart software would you advice is the best.

[KeyMark Services]

Originally Posted by burger650

If I was looking at putting together my own site rather than a template .. which shopping cart software would you advice is the best.

I am biased so my input is slanted....for versatility and scaleability actinic gets my vote...with a caveat, you must understand access, php and the cart structure to get the best out of it.

If not, it is also pretty darn good straight out of the box.

[Mike]

Phil on here, who im sure will be along soon has a good cart called openmindcommerce - www.openmindcommerce.co.uk

its full of nifty features and includes a monthly pay option

[OldWelshGuy]

cre loaded or zen for me. I advised quite a lot on Actinic, but walked away after they decided to offer SEO courses. Actinic was lousy and expensive and had HUGE seo issues. Not sure if they have sorted that out, but by the sound of it seeing as you have to hack and slash it, i would say no.

You expect to have to make changes to OS software, but not high end Ecomm software.

I am off to look at mikes offering now

[KeyMark Services]

Originally Posted by OldWelshGuy

cre loaded or zen for me. I advised quite a lot on Actinic, but walked away after they decided to offer SEO courses. Actinic was lousy and expensive and had HUGE seo issues. Not sure if they have sorted that out, but by the sound of it seeing as you have to hack and slash it, i would say no.

You expect to have to make changes to OS software, but not high end Ecomm software.

I am off to look at mikes offering now

Way off the mark there I am afraid OWG...and I think my post may have helped confuse you.

What I am stating is thus....

Out of the box, it is great for home users whom wish to have a supplementary income or indeed as a starting point. Design re-work is easy, SEO results are fabulous...much better IME than OSC or Zen (static pages not dynamic & no need to install any mods for this) and very, very easy to get up and running.

When I stated to get the best out of it, I am of course, referring to extending it and I am 100% certain that to extend any O.O.T.B. software including the OS options, you would need to 'hack' to add-on extra features that the growing store may require.

Having worked with several variants over the years, my top 3 would be

1 Actinic
2 Cartweaver (mainly for cross border work)
3 Zen Cart

I know OSC have cleaned up their act, but I just do not enjoy working inside their antiquated template system.

Hope this has cleared up any confusion.

[Mike]

In this case OMC would be on the list to look at for sure

[OldWelshGuy]

So can you now have individual product pages that were linked directly via spiderable links and not through javascript 'more' buttons? as that was one of the big issues.

As i said, i stopped being invloved with it about 2 years ago.

Oddly enough though, I am about to run a series on choosing the best shopping cart, so this will be interesting as I intend evaluating them again.

Thanks for the information.

[KeyMark Services]

Indeed you can OWG. Massive improvement and I have been with them since version 4

That was a bit................

Regards

[Beneddie1112]

Originally Posted by Mike

In this case OMC would be on the list to look at for sure

You on a commision rate?

Seriously though, Phil's choice of OMC is definitely a good one

Cheers,
Ben

[consultant]

Goto www.testacart.com (this is my site). you will beable to paly around with the front and backends of most of the major open source carts that work on relatively stabdard servers.