CS-Cart

[expertcredit09]

I am helping a friend set up his website and online store and he is planning to use CS-Cart for his check-out. I have never heard of this cart and I was wondering if anyone else had any experience with it? Is it good, bad or ugly?

 

[tpajet]

I've done a couple shopping cart systems (been a while though).

I don't see anything wrong with this one on the surface. The best advice I can give you is to download it, since it's free, and install it, and give it a whirl. Put some test products up (make sure you put a note on the front page that these are only test products and no orders are being filled at this time.)

One thing I would recommend is using PayPal with this. PayPal has a feature that allows the checkout process to take place on your website, but the payments are handled through them. And the great thing is PayPal has what's called the sandbox, which looks and acts exactly the same as regular paypal, but no real money changes hands, so you can go through the whole shopping experience start to finsih, including paying for it, and make sure all will work for you.

The other advantage is that PayPal is then handleing all of the credit processing, so your friend doesn't have to worry about credit card number security.

And the other thing I would tell you is to really tinker with it before you decide you don't like it. I had used a couple and really gave them all a chance before decideing that I liked OS Commerce the best. Even it took a bit to get used to, once I got the hang of it, it worked pretty good. The issue with it was that the addresses were set up for foreign addresses, but you can change the code, and there is a forum to help you.

The biggest key to all of this is make sure the features that it offers will work for the business, but that it doesn't have an overkill of features.

And remember that it might seem a bit daunting at first, but give it a try, and I think you find it's easier than you think. Some people stress out about these things and make it complicated for themselves. Just give it a bit of time, take it slow, and I think you'll be just fine.