My father has a small "mom & pop" store that sells gifts and food
products. He's a motivated and creative guy, and without any computer
background, managed to get his store online a few years ago.
He's been using a web-server ecommerce package called Miva Merchant
(http://www.miva.com/products/merchant/), which works with his Apache
web server (a FreeBSD Virtual Private Server from Verio). The
software costs around $1000 I believe.
After several years, he's beginning to hit some limitations with the
functionality of Miva Merchant, with respect to storefront navigation,
look and feel, and product attributes.
He could attempt to customize Miva Merchant, or hire a firm to design
custom extensions --- but he's worried about the learning curve,
customization time/cost, getting locked into unsupported extensions,
and possible reliability problems.
Before he begins, he wanted to know if he was missing other E-Commerce
solutions that might be a better match for his needs.
QUESTION: Are there other E-Commerce packages that would be a better
alternative to Miva Merchant? He probably can't pay more than $5000.
And the software needs to work with the Verio Virtual Private Server
which is an Apache webserver, running on a FreeBSD UNIX PC, where he
won't have root access to install or run software
(http://hosting.verio.com/index.php/vps.html). |
Request for Question Clarification by
serenata-ga
on
13 Jul 2003 23:16 PDT
Hi Bkft ~
It would be beneficial to any of the Google Answers Researchers who
supply an answer to know if there are requirements for any particular
credit card processing gateway.
Some shopping carts which may be easier to install and learn may not
be suitable if they aren't compatible with whatever payment
requirements needed.
Thanks,
Serenata
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Clarification of Question by
bkft-ga
on
14 Jul 2003 09:32 PDT
I really don't know too much about e-commerce, so I'm not sure what my
dad is doing, but here's what I know...
(1) He is using the Verisign Payflow payment system
(2) He is also using the UPS shipping charge calculation system
Does this help?
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Request for Question Clarification by
serenata-ga
on
15 Jul 2003 01:37 PDT
Hi again Bkft ~
I can recommend an easy to use customizable shopping cart that
invisibly ties in with Verisign's Payflow, and is easily customizable
to how your dad might want to set up and then grow his own business.
Take a look at http://www.mals-e.com ... Mal's is a pretty easy to
customize shopping cart. Mal even offers a 'pro' (for pay) which is
what you'd need for the Verisign Payflow.
I know of a lot of small business owners, from very small to fairly
active, who use Mals-e. A bonus for them is the same shopping cart can
offer the option to use Paypal as an alternate method of payment,
which a lot of their customers seem to prefer.
There are good tutorials on Mal's site, and terrific help from their
customers who use it successfully. Once you get the first item set up
and working (lots of examples on how to do that) - adding the rest of
the inventory is pretty easy.
I have installed Mal's on a couple of websites, so I can attest to its
working well, and Mal's support is excellent.
I suspect this may be what your father might need. I like the
flexibility and the ease of use.
If this doesn't meet your needs, post here what, exactly you feel is
missing or perhaps post the URL so we can help find what you can use.
Thanks,
Serenata
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Clarification of Question by
bkft-ga
on
15 Jul 2003 14:57 PDT
Thanks Serenata,
Before I take a look at this, can you tell me if you think it meets
the previously mentioned platform criteria (working on a FreeBSD UNIX
box where we don't have root access)?
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Request for Question Clarification by
serenata-ga
on
15 Jul 2003 16:20 PDT
Hi, again ...
Sorry, yes it does work on a Free BSD UNIX box ...
As a matter of fact, the SSL certificate you use is Mals, and the
actual data is stored for download on Mal's secure server. There are
some advantages to having that information on a different server than
what the website resides on.
It's operated through coding which gets added to the cart, and once
the visitor is ready to check out, it seamlessly blends with Mal's
secure servers to process the payment information.
My oops! for not mentioning that.
Serenata
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Clarification of Question by
bkft-ga
on
15 Jul 2003 18:44 PDT
I was sort of hoping for a researched collection of e-commerce
packages that "would be a better alternative to Miva Merchant". I
imagined there would be some kind of review on the web, or other
comparison resource, to help me make decisions.
You've kindly suggested one package that you have some experience with
(out of presumably hundreds), but it's not clear to me if this is
better or worse. It's one I hadn't heard of (which might offer some
value), but in terms of helping me understand the space and options,
probably something like a 2-3 star research contribution?
Any chance you are able to help me better understand my options to
Mive Merchant?
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Request for Question Clarification by
serenata-ga
on
15 Jul 2003 19:33 PDT
Ahhhhhh, my misunderstanding ...
I thought your preference was more ease of use and flexibility for
your father that benefits the visitor/customer, which is why I
suggested you look at Mal's.
I am the owner of a web design/website development business, and have
worked with several shopping cart packages including Miva Merchant,
Dansie, Interchange, Agora, osCommerce, etc., which are installed on
the host. All of them are similar to Miva and have some of the same
drawbacks you mentioned.
I've also worked with offsite shopping cart software, which offers a
greater flexibility, but some worry about purchase information data
stored on a third party server.
Other drawbacks for the consumer are that some carts won't 'hold' a
buyer's place and allow them to retrieve the cart on a subsequent
visit, confusing user interface or obvious jump through the gateway
which leaves the buyer wondering how he ended up on that site, etc.
None of those are insurmountable with some coding.
It may come as a surprise, but among some of those small businesses I
deal with on a regular basis, the Yahoo store is the most successful
(and they say easiest) storefront software to deal with.
I recommended Mals-e only for the ease of use and seamless integration
through the payment gateway you are using. I work with several Work at
home/Stay at home businesses owned by women who seem to prefer Mals
for those reasons.
Perhaps some other Google Answers Researcher will be able to give you
an objective comparison and recommend a shopping cart for your father.
Sorry I wasn't able to help,
Serenata
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Request for Question Clarification by
sycophant-ga
on
17 Jul 2003 07:15 PDT
Hi,
I am not really in a position to offer a strong opinion on a range of
packages at the moment, but I can mention one which I have some
personal experience with that would seem to address the points you
have mentioned so far -
osCommerce (mentioned in passing by serenata) is an Open Source
storefront project, which is growing in maturity.
Beyond the well designed base package, there are a great number of
contributions that are submitted back to the project, these include
shipping and payment modules (to handle UPS shipping and Verisign
payment, and many more) as well as many additional features,
languages, reports and so on.
Here are some links to look at re: osCommerce
osCommerce Homepage
http://www.oscommerce.com/
osCommerce Contributions
http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions
Verisign Payflow Payment Module
http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,960/page,7
UPS Shipping Module
http://www.oscommerce.com/community/contributions,528/page,3
The biggest drawback with osCommerce is that it's still developing as
a package, and as with a lot of open source software, some QA is
lacking. However with a little care and checking, it is very
functional and incredibly flexible.
If you'd like to identify a few target points for your ecommerce
software, it may be easier for myself or another researcher to
investigate and evaluate some packeages for you. Otherwise, our basis
for judgement is very subjective.
Regards,
Sycophant-ga
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