The best OS e-commerce package

The Guvnor

Hi Guys,

Just looking for some advice on what you guys think is the best os e-commerce package out there atm?

I've been looking at loads of them:

OS Commerce
Zen Cart
VirtueMart
Magento

I am sure there are many more but what is the best or least bad?

Thanks

croo

I would depend on what kind of complexity you need but my preference is OfBiz ... it's a full business solution rather than just a webstore, so it handles warehousing & distribution and all that other good stuff that happens behind the scenes. And it has some impressive clientele using it. Of course you can just use the bits you need now and implement other modules as when you are ready. Given it potential though it's not your typical "out of the box" solution - but like I say it all depends on what your needs are.

The Guvnor

Thanks Croo!

I've never heard of OfBiz but will check them out. Someone else mentioned ModX?

The backend sounds good and would be important. Just to mention the store is selling physical products that we stock in two warehouses which we own and lease so we are and will be very conscious of stock levels.

I assume the backend/dashboard (new to me this week) make reporting and accountancy tasks that bit faster and easier?

I'll check them out now but am assuming it's not OS.
You've used OfBiz before mate?

Thanks again mate.

croo

Well it's a full ERP behind the scenes so it should be capable of supporting requirements going forward.

I have not a running project up, but I did spent a lot of last year preparing to build a project based on its technology so do know it well. But the project I had planned for was canceled [there's a recession don't you know! ], so I never got to actually implement. But if you're looking for support let me know

I mostly work on another open source ERP product called Adempiere, which also has webstore but I think its functionality in this respect lacking greatly when compared to OfBiz so hence my interest in it.

The project was also submitted to Fortify for security checking
https://opensource.fortify.com/teamserver/welcome.fhtml;jsessionid=9C7C3FAE74FF2BAF2F3127D942FFF759
and it passed remarkable well. A couple of issue were identifies and addressed... so I would be very very confident of it in that respect too!

The backend of Ofbiz; it allows management of many aspects of the webstores but also; Marketing, Purchasing, Accounts (Accounts Payable & Receivable), Stock Management (incoming receipts, picklists, shipping etc), plus some HR, Project management, Sales (CRM).. it's very complete business solution. It also has some "sub" projects for ebay & google checkout but I've not even looked to these functionalities accept to read about them. All in all I think it is a great application built on great technology (under the covers so to speak , the design is very strong).

But the caveat is that they take the approach of include everything and you can remove what is not needed. So for this reason a lot of terms & labels are not necessarily user friendly but they are named so because the correct label really depends on how you implement.

The Guvnor

Hi Croo,

I had to check what ERP was, bit green here!:)

Am I right in saying that as it's apache based it should be easy to host with most webhosts? Apache is the most common type of server?

I will definitely need support going forward mate, thanks! I don't suppose you have a demo of the project site up somewhere? Just bad timing on this recession - who really saw it coming?

When browsing OfBiz I came across www.brainfood.com and their click2build editing, have you seen this? Apparently it is OS and in the OfBiz software.

Croo - you really rate this package above the likes of OS, Zen, Magento etcetera?

From what I read it gives designers/coders full control with pretty much zero restrictions.

Thanks mate.

croo

re: ERP
Sorry, I forget sometimes and drop acronyms but I am taking medication for it...

It is an Apache project. Apache is a Foundation the supports many open source projects. The Apache webserver is another project, but actually OfBiz could run on any webserver. Put it's more than just a webstore and uses Java Enterprise technology (also called J2EE) so you would most probably require a server rather than a simple webhost. But renting servers are very reasonable these days so you can still get it hosted ... it's just these very cheap hosting services you see are often preconfigured LAMP servers... now LAMP just means L=Linux the operating system, A=Apache webserver that you mention, M=MySQL the database to store information in and P=PHP or Pyton maybe which are the programming languages.

re: brainfood
No, I hadn't seen that before.

re: versus OS, Zen, Magento etcetera?
Well, I think it is a different league and really depends on what you need. They are all very popular projects and I only looked really at OScommerce before .. I did look at a couple of others but I found that they really just addressed the question of the website. OfBiz is attempting to create a total business solution - the potential complexity it can support is unmatched in my opinion... but if you don't need that complexity and just need to whip some images and product on a website to get online quick then don't waste your time & effort! Stick to something simpler.
But if you really need a custom built solution that addresses your very specific needs but could never afford one then this is when open source and something like OfBiz comes into... it provides most of your needs how much it costs to complete that though depends on how much effort you are will an also able to put in. A good web designer can really make such a difference to the look and feel of your web site [I'm not a web designer ], just make sure you pick a good one

re: demo
Well, I am between broadband providers at the moment so stuck on mobile 3g and don't want to put any servers on it .. maybe in a few days I will be sorted. An installation today was canceled at the last moment.

But, there is a demo on the OfBiz website;
BackOffice at - https://demo.ofbiz.org/catalog/control/login/main?USERNAME=demoadmin&PASSWORD=ofbiz
you just need to be aware that people from all over the world are using it so the language may change ... just change it back to English if it does.

With the accompanying eCommerce site at - http://demo.ofbiz.org/ecommerce/control/main

A lot of people find it difficult to imagine how the webstore might look branded so recently the original developer of OfBiz created an example branded eCommerce site as a further demo.
http://demo.hotwaxmedia.com/shopdemo/control/main

Hope that helps you some more

The Guvnor

Thanks again Croo! I understand fully what you mean by picking a good designer.;)

Your expertise is more the backend side of things?

I was reading that brainfood are working on a webslinger templating system for the OfBiz system and that their current website was designed with same. What did you think of their website?

If and when you get your BB sorted I'd be interested in seeing the work you did, if it's not stepping on any privacy issues or similar.

When you mention servers would a VPS be the same thing? Far better than a shared hosting system? If we are very fortunate we could grow the business to a level where we get 50-100 online orders per day. This however would be great for us but would not be a heavy bandwith site.

We've thought about having a forum on the site but IMO no need as they take a lot of time to manage and keep spam free plus there are better dedicated forums out there. Maybe a blog and customer reviews/comments etc. but none of this will jack up the band with substantially, IMO anyway.

You'd need a lot of visitors to use 10gb in traffic let alone 100-200gb, imo again!

I really like the Ofbiz full erp set-up mate. It looks good.

Thanks for the heads up on it!

Talk soon

croo

Hi Guvnor,
Responded via PM for the personal stuff.

What did you think of their website?

Well it seemed a little "busy" but I guess given what they are selling they are trying to show their skills.

When you mention servers would a VPS be the same thing?

Yeah a virtual server is fine, the basic setup and running is not very intensive but you need access and control to configure the application properly.
Of course, it goes with out saying, that your system requirements will depend greatly on how busy your site is!
I have read of OfBiz sites handling 10,000 orders a day so it should have no issue with 50-100 orders. One website that I have actually used is the gadget site "I Want One Of Those" (or IWOOT) http://www.iwantoneofthose.com/ which I later discovered is powered by OfBiz. There is an article on it here http://howto.techworld.com/storage/3729/case-study-iwoot-using-open-source-to-give-you-what-you-want/

We've thought about having a forum on the site but IMO no need as they take a lot of time to manage and keep spam free plus there are better dedicated forums out there. Maybe a blog and customer reviews/comments etc.

Yeah well there is functionality for all that in OfBiz... but the demo displays all functionality just so you can see it. But it is very simply to switch on/off any given functionality such as forums and you would most likely do that as part of the branding/configuration of the site. But if it ever became necessary adding it again would be equally easy. Alas OfBiz is not managed by a nice UI but rather is configured via (XML) files.. so in this respect (adding removing functionality) it is not really targeted at end users in the way say the Content Management System (CMS) Joomla! is.

The Guvnor

Hi Colin,

It was good to meet up. I've got just a 'few':D more questions. Some of which I will ask here.

Talk soon


Guv

The Guvnor

I checked out ec2 but as you said it is hard to work out a reliable monthly charge. It does look good and a cloud set up moving forward would be good.

For example and it is just my opinion but I think 10-20gb of monthly traffic on an ecommerce website without a forum would suggest quite a lot of visitors?

It is hard to guage but I would think if you were in danger of exceeding your bandwith allowance as a result of shoppers then you be quite happy.

croo

The Guvnor wrote: »

I checked out ec2 but as you said it is hard to work out a reliable monthly charge.

But it might be very cheap for a test/demo site under development that is not used much!?

The Guvnor wrote: »

For example and it is just my opinion but I think 10-20gb of monthly traffic on an ecommerce website without a forum would suggest quite a lot of visitors?

It is hard to guage but I would think if you were in danger of exceeding your bandwith allowance as a result of shoppers then you be quite happy.

Yeah, if you getting the business then like all businesses it's best to invest to ensure your customers are comfortable and well looked after.. no doubt about it.

TheGreatest

I would recommend the prestashop

http://www.prestashop.com

lu1980

oscommerce i think its the best has also large support forum

croo

Does pretashop or oscommerce do anything other than the front end though?
I think not ... but can be corrected.

If you require a purchasing system, stock management, picking etc then I think osCommerce shows its weakness. This is why I said osCommerce seems to be aimed very much as at the small business... perhaps you already have a sales business and what to add a basic website.

But if you want to be a giant, then at some point you will have to dump osCommerce and move to something like OfBiz eventually. So why not bite the bullet and do it now. You can start with just some modules and then extend! Their new themes should eventually create a market place for basic themes that will allow people to get up and going quicker.

Another point is security. CMS like joomla are great, they allow people with practically no understanding of that interwebby thing to create half decent websites. You don't need to know anything about security and lets face it even if you got hacked the worst that would happen would be your website is defaced. A ecommerce site however typically has a lot of very sensitive data... now you really have to be sure of your security. You still need to know something IMO, but at least OfBiz has passed Fortifies stringent security tests with flying colours. Not many eCommerce apps can say that... open source or not
https://opensource.fortify.com/teamserver/welcome.fhtml;jsessionid=AB95E818ABEA3AF2E0EA557CC61F020A

softpact

yeah, but have a good software is just a start you need traffic, do some marketing is not easy you can read more here

And remember when you start you need choose good domain name you can get a lot of traffic thanks that.