[RedEvo]

Thanks for the info. I didn't mean to cause offence or suggest packaged ecommerce packages are all poor, apologies if this was the case.

I've found the flexibility of a CMS married to a separate cart to be a great solution for our needs offering more flexibility than other systems I've laboured over but I accept it's each to his own. Joomla/Virtuemart is obviously a great SEOable ecom solution, many many others are a nightmare IMHO.

Hope this clarifies my position on this

d

[consultant]

with ecommerce starting to evolve into more than just a simple web shop front (comunities. 'environments' etc), Joomla/Virtuemart is ahead of the game. Sure, Magento is creeping up, but if content or design is king, you will have a long way to go to been j/V.

Sure, out of the box, it needs a bit more - a few more reports, payment gateways, post systems, better EU/global VAT management (at least, I cant get that to work right!) as well as a few other things, however, it has a very good path planned.
Note: at lot of these additions are available as commercial add-ons.

It also does have some of the snazziest tempates and gizmo's available for any website, many/most totally free.

[da8iwr]

Hi consultant, your very right.

You can buy literally hundreds if not maybe thousands of templates from different companies, which are immediately installable. Some are incredibly good, for DDA and SEO, allowing text re-size, width stretching, colour scheme changes, and they dont look tacky or rubbish. Many of the Joomla template clubs are European as well, so you haven't got the 1998 American design style plastered all over them, like they do on many of the template monster web templates.

The main thing that is really holding back VM at the moment though, is a lack of accounts system to be built in. We are developing one right now, which hopefully will be launched in a couple of months. This will give most tools a small self employed person, and maybe even a little more larger company the ability to input their accounts.

The system will of course be expanded upon over the years, but it is a good starting block i suppose

Sorry for being a little too in-depth back there Red Evo, but i have had a few confrontations on other business forums about the same kind of thing.

[RedEvo]

Originally Posted by da8iwr

Sorry for being a little too in-depth back there Red Evo, but i have had a few confrontations on other business forums about the same kind of thing.

No problem, do what's right for you

d

[awebapart]

Originally Posted by da8iwr

My First post here on A1, but i use UKBF a LOT under the same username.

Hi Ian, good to see you on this forum too!

Originally Posted by da8iwr

The closest ecommerce system for W3 and DDA compliance is tradingeye in Newcastle

I know you've been mentioning this system on other forums for quite a while. In the past I got the impression that it was a system that didn't get much exposure in the business forums (not the forums I visit, at least). I was very interested to find out today that UK2.net have stopped white labelling the US-based PinnacleCart as their ecommerce system, and they are now white labelling tradingeye as the ecommerce system they offer to clients. There is a UK2 blog describing this change of direction. Hopefully with UK2 behind it, tradingeye will get more exposure on small business forums, as another ecommerce option for online shop owners to investigate.

[da8iwr]

Hi Paul good to see you again
Yerp that is amazing news isn't it. I love to see a real UK company pushing forward, and really making a go at business.

DPI Vision, has done extremely well as a company, going from a small father and son team in 2004, up to today being pushed by pure ambition.

It also goes to show as well, that this company that make everything in-house (in Newcastle Upon Tyne, England), and doesn't outsource anything at all, can be more successful than a hundreds of UK companies that outsource their work to India and Africa.

Maybe there is a good lesson to be learnt here??