Zencart, OScommerce, etc

[Burly Brute]

So, I am wondering if any of the rabble have any advice on which free cart system you prefer? Any suggestions? Etc? I have checked out google, but all the opinions I find are from 6 years ago. Thanks everyone!
-BB

[Burly Brute]

So nadda?

[tulloch]

I use the subway when I am in Boston.

[davidg]

PayPal is fairly simple without the need for other cart software

[James C]

Hello Burly Bute, I have done lots of research on this and it all depends on your needs. If you want a good hosted cart i would recommend Magento. It does have a bit of a learning curve to it though. Open cart is a great cart as well that is easy to use and well supported. I would stay away from the Oscommerce, zen carts ones as they are older and have lots of exploits in my experience. If you would like some articles to look at or any questions just message me happy to help out.

[Burly Brute]

Thank you guys for your input. It's not a giant endeavor, mostly for small crafts. But, I was curious because it seems like anytime I google my questions I get opinions that cover all spectrums. Thanks again for your input guys, even if it was just to be funny ;)

-Zach

[usonian]

Hi Zach,

It partly depends on how much tinkering you want to do with setup; if you have a web host and are pretty comfortable uploading files to it, using the control panel to create a database, etc. then you might look into some of the open source solutions out there like Wordpress (I'm not familiar with all of the cart modules available, but if you search for 'wordpress shopping cart' you'll see there are a number of them - shouldn't be hard to find up to date reviews.

I can personally vouch for the combination of Drupal and http://drupal.org/project/ubercart, but setup does involve a fair amount of tinkering.

Have you looked at Etsy.com? If you're just selling a few things that you've made yourself, it might be the way to go; it's very easy to use, and free to set up a shop. You pay $0.20 for each item that you list (listings last for 3 or 4 months, I forget which) and then Etsy collects a 3% commission on whatever you sell. They integrate nicely with Paypal, so customers can checkout with their Paypal account or a credit card via PayPal (if your account is set up to accept credit card payments.) The added bonus is that you're on a site with thousands of other sellers and customers, so it's far more likely that someone will stumble across your stuff while browsing than it would be if you set up a standalone online shop somewhere else. Users can add your things to their favorites and "treasuries", which are featured collections of various things people have for sale; there's a lot of cross-pollination, and it's a nice community. There's at least one contemporary kiltmaker on Etsy that I can recall, and I've seen handmade sporrans now and again.

I have no stake or affiliation with Etsy other than being a happy user for a couple of years now.

Good luck!

-Andy

[Burly Brute]

I like Etsy, my soon-to-be wife has bought a lot of stuff off there for our wedding. I like the idea, but I would rather maintain as much profit as possible as this will be more of a hobby type set-up from the get-go. I don't know, its a huge endeavor, but I appreciate your comment! And Drupal/ubercart do look intriguing, however, I am not good with scripting and all that.

[Beertigger]

For ecommerce, my choice is the CartThrob module for ExpressionEngine.

[chrisupyonder]

You could look into an Amazon shop or Ebay. If PayPal is available when I am buying online, I always use it.

Chris.